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MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 



LIFE AND SERVICES 



Philip Sidney Post 



(Late a Representative from Illinois) 



DELIVERED IN THE 



HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATE. 



Fifty-third Congress, Third Session. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF CONGRESS 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1895- 









AUG 6 lyOM 
U. or a 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Proceedings in the House 5 

Military and civic tributes. 69 

Memorial address by — 

Mr. BoUTELLE 57 

Mr. BKODERICK -. 66 

Mr. BYNUM 29 

Mr. Clarke of Alabama . 4° 

Mr. DomvER 47 

Mr. Goldzier ... 62 

Mr. Grosvenor 33 

Mr. Grout 20 

Mr. Henderson of Illinois 10 

Mr. Lane 25 

Mr. Lucas 42 

Mr. Stockdale ' 52 

Mr. Wheeler of Alabama 45 

Proceedings in the Senate 73 

Memorial address by — 

Mr. Cullqm - 7^ 

Mr. Teller 84 

Mr. Palmer .-_. 88 



Death of Representative Post, 



Proceedings in the House. 

January 7, 1895. 

The following prayer was made by the Chaplain, Rev. 
E. B. Bagbv: 

( > Thou great disposer of all human events, in whom 
are the issues of life and death, we come into Thy presence 
this morning deeply conscious of the shortness and uncer- 
tainty of life. Since our last meeting in the halls of leg- 
islation our ranks have been broken into, and the Angel 
of Death has called hence a distinguished member of this 
body. We bear upon our hearts, tender with sympathy, 
the sorrow of his bereaved family. May the}' feel beneath 
them Thv everlasting arms. May they be kept by Tin- 
peace, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. 
Impress upon us all the lesson of this hour. As our bodies 
are frail and our days are few, may we live as if there were 
but a step betwixt us and death; and when the night comes 
may we lie down in peace to sleep, and awake in the morn- 
ing of the resurrection to the light of Thy love, the joy of 
Thy presence, and to the glory of Thy everlasting home, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

:*: ;■: % * * 

Mr. Henderson of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, it becomes my 
painful duty to announce to the members of the House 

5 



6 Proceedings in the House. 

of Representatives the death of my colleague and friend, 
the Hon. Philip Sidney Post, of Illinois. He died at 4 
o'clock on Sunday morning, the 6th instant, at the Ham- 
ilton House, in this city, after a brief illness. On Friday 
afternoon I saw and conversed with him, as did many other 
members, in the House, and his sudden and unexpected 
death has shocked and saddened all of us who have been 
familiar with his kindly and genial face during his service 
in this body. At some future time I shall ask the House 
to suspend its business and pay suitable tribute to the 
memory of his distinguished services and honorable life. 
At present I will only say that he was a brave and gal- 
lant soldier, an intelligent and faithful Representative in 
this body, and a kind and affectionate husband, father, and 
friend. 

Mr. Speaker, I now ask the House to adopt the resolu- 
tions which I send to the Clerk's desk. 

The resolutions were read, as follows: 

Resolved, That the House of Representatives has heard with profound sorrow 
of the death of Hon. Philit Sidney Post, late a Representative from the State of 
Illinois. 

Raolved, That a committee of nine members of the House be appointed by 
the Speaker, to act with such Senators as may be selected, to attend the funeral of 
the deceased; that the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House shall take order for super- 
intending the funeral of the deceased at his home, and that the necessary expenses 
attending the execution of this order shall be paid out of the contingent fund of 
the House. 

Resolved, That the Clerk of the House be directed to communicate to the Sen- 
ate a copy of these resolutions. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect the House do now adjourn. 

Mr. Henderson of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I move the 
adoption of those resolutions. 

The resolutions were adopted. 

The Speaker announced, in pursuance of the foregoing 
resolutions, the appointment of the committee on the part 



Proceedings in the House. 7 

of the House, as follows: Mr. Henderson of Illinois, Mr. 
Bynum, Mr. Boutelle, Mr. Lane. Mr. Marsh, Mr. Childs, 
Mr. Stallings, Mr. Wheeler of Illinois, and Mr. Lucas. 

A message from the Senate, by Mr. Piatt, one (if its 
clerks, announced that the Senate had passed the follow- 
in"- resolutions on the announcement of the death of Hon. 
Philip Sidney Post, late a Representative from the State 

of Illinois: 

In nil- Senate, January 7, 1S95. 
'ved, That the Senate has heard with deep sensibility the announcement of 
the death of Hon. Philip Sidney PosT.latea Representative from the State of 
Illinois. 

Resolved, That a committee of rive Senators be appointed by the Presiding 
Officer, to join the committee appointed on the part of the House of Represent- 
atives, to take order for superintending the funeral of the deceased and to accom- 
pany the remains t.i the place of burial. 

R, toeved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the House of 
Representatives. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased 
the Senate do now adjourn. 

And that, in compliance with the above resolutions, the 
Presiding Officer had appointed Mr. Palmer, Mr. Cullom, 
Mr. Mitchell of Wisconsin, Mr. Gallinger, and Mr. Allen 
as the committee to join a similar committee on the part of 
the House. 

The House then, in pursuance of the resolutions pre- 
viouslv adopted, adjourned. 

February 4, 1895. 
The Speaker laid before the House the following reso- 
lution: 

Resolved, That Tuesday, the 26th day of February next, beginning at 2 o'clock 
p. m., be set apart for eulogies on the life and services of Hon. Philip Sidni y 
Pi is 1 , late a Representative from the Tenth district of Illinois. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

February 26, 1895. 
The Speaker. The hour of half past 3 o'clock having 
arrived, the House proceeds to the consideration of the spe- 
cial order, which the Clerk will read. 
The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That Tuesday, the 20th day of February nest, beginning at 2 o'clock 
p. m., be set apart for eulogies on the life and services of Hon. Philip Sidney 
Post, late a Representative from the Tenth district of Illinois. 

Mr. HENDERSON of Illinois. I offer the resolutions which 
I send to the desk. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the death of 
Hon. Philip Sidney Post, a Representative from the State of Illinois. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memorv of the deceased the busi- 
ness of the House be now suspended that his associates may be able to pay tribute 
to his high character and distinguished services. 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect the House shall, at the con- 
clusion of these ceremonies, adjourn. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk be directed to transmit a copy of these resolutions to 
the family of the deceased. 

The question being taken, the resolutions were unani- 
mously adopted. 

9 



io Address of Mr. Henderson of Illinois. 



ADDRESS OF MR. HENDERSON OF ILLINOIS. 

Mr. Speaker: The death of the late Hon. Philip Sid- 
NEY Post occurred at the Hamilton House, in this city, on 
Sunday, the 6th day of January, 1895, at the hour of 4 
o'clock in the morning, and was so sudden and unexpected 
as to shock not only his many friends in this body, but the 
people of his Congressional district and State. Some of us, 
Mr. Speaker, had seen and conversed with General Post 
here in the Hall of the House on the Friday afternoon be- 
fore his death. He was then apparently in good health 
and with as fair a promise of life as any of us here to-day. 
And yet in a few brief hours, surrounded by his faithful 
and devoted wife and a loving son and daughter, he was 
stricken down and passed away to meet and act with us 
here no more forever. While contemplating the sudden- 
ness of his decease we can but exclaim: Surely man " Com- 
eth forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a 
shadow, and contiuueth not." 

Gen. Philip Sidney Post was born in the town of 
Florida, in the county of Orange and State of New York, 
011 the 19th of March, 1833, and was therefore, at the time 
of his decease, not quite sixty-two . years of age. He was 
born of highly respectable parentage, and was liberally 
educated, having graduated with honors at Union College, 
in Schenectady, N. Y. , in the year 1855. After gradu- 
ating at Union College he studied law at the law school 
in Poughkeepsie, N. Y. In the year 1S61 he followed 
his father and mother to Galesburtr, 111., where, movinsf 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. n 

from the State of New York, they had made their home in 
1854, and I believe General Post continued ever after the 
year 1861 to make Galesburg his place of residence. 

But, Mr. Speaker, at the time General Post joined his 
father and mother at Galesburg civil war was threatening 
the dissolution of the Union, and, inspired by a spirit of 
patriotism and devotion to his country, he helped to raise a 
company of volunteers in the count}' of Knox, where he 
resided. But, as Illinois had furnished all the volunteers 
called for from that State, this company raised in Knox 
County could not be accepted; and so the company pro- 
ceeded to the city of St. Louis, Mo. , where it was mustered 
into the service of the United States as Company A of the 
Ninth Regiment of Missouri Volunteers, although the regi- 
ment was composed wholly of citizens of Illinois, and was 
subsequently constituted by order of the War Department 
the Fifty-ninth Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry. 

General Post was elected a second lieutenant of the 
company he had helped to enlist; but in the organization 
of the regiment he was made adjutant, and in January, 
1862, was promoted to the rank of major of the regiment. 
As Gen. J. C. Keltou, late Adjutant-General of the Army of 
the United States, and afterwards governor of the Soldiers' 
Home in this city, now deceased, had been made colonel 
of the regiment, but had been assigned to duty on the staff 
of Major-General Halleck, General Post took command of 
the regiment as major, and by a severe midwinter march 
joined General Curtis in the campaign made by that officer 
preceding the battle of Pea Ridge, in the State of Arkansas. 
In that engagement General Post distinguished himself as 
an able, brave, and gallant officer, for which he was specially 



12 Address of Mr. Henderson of Illinois. 

mentioned in the official reports of the battle. He was 
severely injured by a gunshot wound in the shoulder dur- 
ing the engagement, but, notwithstanding, he refused to 
leave the field, until, helpless from the loss of blood, he was 
taken off. Some ten days after the battle of Pea Ridge 
General POST was unanimously elected colonel by the 
officers of the regiment in place of Colonel Kelton, who 
had recommended his appointment, and was commissioned 
and mustered in as such. 

General Post returned to the field before he had recov- 
ered fully from the wounds which he received at the battle 
of Pea Ridge, and at Hamburg Landing, in May, 1862, was 
assigned to the command of a brigade, and marched the 
same to its place in the line of battle before Corinth four 
days before the evacuation of that place. During the sum- 
mer of 1862 he was actively engaged in military duties in 
Mississippi. Among other orders executed by him, he 
moved upon the large factories at Bay Springs, Miss., sur- 
prised the enemy which guarded them, drove them out in 
confusion, and completely disabled the mills. He also 
commanded an expedition to Allsboro, Ala., and in less 
than twenty hours seized, loaded, and carried away $80,000 
worth of cotton, his command having marched thirty-six 
miles in the round trip from Iuka. 

General Post then crossed the Tennessee River with his 
brigade to assist in expelling Bragg and Kirby Smith from 
Kentucky and Tennessee, and after the 18th of August, 
1862, his brigade was identified with and participated in 
the movements of the armies of the Ohio and the Cumber- 
land. At Louisville, Ky. , on the 1st of October, 1862, he 
was assigned to the command of the First Brigade, First 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 13 

Division, Twentieth Army Corps, which was composed of 
the Twenty-second Indiana Infantry, the Fourth, Fifth, 
and Fifty-ninth Illinois Infantry, and the Fifth Wisconsin 
Battery. General Post commanded this brigade for some 
twelve or thirteen months, and until after the Chickamauea 

o 

campaign and battle, when, in a reorganization of the 
Army, the brigade lost its identity. During the year Gen- 
eral Post commanded this brigade it performed meritorious 
service at Perryville, Lancaster, Nolensville, Liberty Gap, 
and at Chickamauga. This brigade lost in the year of its 
existence eight hundred and fifty heroic men on the battle- 
field, and was especially noted and referred to for its drill 
and discipline; and General Post's division commander, in 
recommending him for promotion, said: 

In all these campaigns and battles Colonel Post has shown himself a com- 
mander of rare qualifications and extraordinary energy and one of the best tacti- 
cians in the Army. The evidence of his skill was exhibited wherever his brigade 
maneuvered, on drill or the battlefield. 

General Post also participated in the Atlanta campaign 
of 1864, and in August of that year was assigned to the com- 
mand of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Fourth Army 
Corps. At the battle of Lovejoy Station, when General 
Wood, who commanded the division, was wounded, General 
Post took command of the division and checked the advance 
of the enemy to the north. 

After the close of the Atlanta campaign and the occupa- 
tion of Atlanta by Sherman's army, General Post rendered 
gallant service in checking the movement of Hood into 
Tennessee, and especially at the battle of Nashville, where, 
while participating in the charge on Overton Hill, he was 
struck by a grapeshot and severely wounded. For some 
time his recovery seemed doubtful. For his gallantrv in 



14 Address of Mr. Henderson of Illinois. 

the battle of Nashville he was brevetted a brigadier-general 
and received a medal from Congress. 

After recovering from the wound received at the battle 
of Nashville General Post was stationed at San Antonio, 
Tex., where he had command of sixteen regiments of infan- 
try, and where he performed his last service and closed his 
distinguished military career. After the battle of Nashville 
Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, in a special report, recom- 
mended the appointment of General Post as a colonel in 
the Regular Army and said of him: 

General Post is an active, energetic, and intelligent officer, and his bravery in 
battle is beyond question. His capability and efficiency as a commander of troops 
have been fully demonstrated. 

His corps commander also reviewed his military career 
in a report made, to the Secretary of War, recommending 
his appointment as a colonel in the Regular Army of the 
United States, in the following words: 

I most respectfully and earnestly recommend Brig. Gen. Philip Sidney Post 
as colonel in the Regular Army of the United States. General Post entered the 
Army as second lieutenant, but soon rose by his superior merits to major. He 
commanded his regiment in the obstinately fought battle of Pea Ridge and was 
severely wounded. Shortly after that battle he was promoted colonel of his 
regiment. Returning to the field even before he had recovered from his wound, 
he rejoined his regiment in front of Corinth, and was placed in command of a 
brigade. From that time to the end of the war General Post's career was an 
unbroken term of arduous service, useful labor, and brilliant actions. He par- 
ticipated honorably in some of the most obstinately contested battles and glorious 
victories of the war. In the great battle and decisive triumph of Nashville Gen- 
eral Post's brigade did more hard fighting and rendered more important service 
than any like organization in the Army. In the grandest and most vigorous 
assault that was made on the enemy's intrenchments, near the close of the fight- 
ing on the second day, General Post fell, and as it was at first supposed mortally 
wounded, at the head of his brigade, leading it to the onslaught. A discharge 
of grape killed his horse under him and tore away a portion of his left hip. I 
know of no officer of General Post's grade who has made a better or more 
brilliant record. 

General Post was, on the reorganization of the Army, in- 
formed by the Secretary of War of these recommendations 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 15 

and that they had been favorably considered. But, as the 
war was over and peace had been established, General 
Post preferred the pursuits of civil life, and declined the 
honor proposed to be conferred upon him, and accord- 
ingly, on the 1 6th of February, 1S66, he left the military 
service. 

But General Post did not remain long in private life, 
for in the same year, 1866, when he left the sendee as 
a soldier, he was appointed by the Government which he 
had so well served consul at Vienna, and served as such 
until 1874, when for his ability and fidelity he was pro- 
moted to the office of consul-general, and served as such 
until 1879, when he retired from the consular service, and 
in 1SS0 returned to his home in Galesburg. 

In his consular service General Post displayed the same 
intelligence and fidelity to duty he had done in the mili- 
tary service. In his long residence abroad he never forgot 
his country or his Americanism, and when he returned to 
the United States he returned as an American, with Amer- 
ican manners and with the thoughts, feelings, and actions 
of a simple American citizen. He, however, brought with 
him a deeper, purer, and stronger love of his country, for 
which he had shed his blood and periled his life on many 
battlefields. 

General Post made, while consul and consul-general, 
many valuable reports of interest to the country, some 
of which have been received and quoted as authorities. 
Among others was an elaborate one on the culture of the 
sugar beet and the manufacture of beet sugar. He also 
made an interesting and valuable report on the railway sys- 
tem of Austria and the protection of American inventors. 



1 6 Address of Air. Henderson of Illinois. 

He recommended the inspection of American meats to be 
exported to other countries, and fifteen years later, as a 
member of this body, he voted for a law providing for such 
an inspection of meats as he had been the first to recom- 
mend when serving his country abroad. 

When General Post retired from the consular service, in 
1879, John Hay, then Assistant Secretary of State, paid 
him the following tribute: 

An examination discloses that many important duties in addition to the more 
formal business of your office were intrusted to you during your long continuance 
with the I lepartment, and they were performed in a manner that commanded its 
approval and commendation. Your reputation in the service and your character 
as a representative of the Government were known to the Department and in the 
service, and to the high opinion entertained of your standing by my predecessor 
and the officers of the Department may be added the testimony of your colleagues 
and my own personal and official acquaintance with the reputation which distin- 
guished your career ab/oad. 

After General Post's return to Galesburg he engaged, in 
1883, in the real-estate business, and gave his attention to it 
until 1886, when he was nominated and elected as a Rep- 
resentative in the Fiftieth Congress. Before his election 
to Congress, however, General Post had served as a mem- 
ber at large of the Republican State central committee of 
Illinois from 1882 to 1886, and in the latter year was com- 
mander of the department of Illinois of the Grand Army 
of the Republic, in which organization he ever took great 
interest and was an active, earnest, devoted member. 

General Post was elected a member of the House of 
Representatives in the Fiftieth Congress by the narrow plu- 
rality of twenty-nine votes over Nicholas E. Worthington, 
a Democrat, who had been twice previously elected a mem- 
ber of the House from the same district; and his right to 
a seat in the House was contested by Mr. Worthington. 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney /'ost. \~ 

But the contest was decided by the Committee on Elections 
and by the House in favor of General Post, and he served 
his constituents so well and so faithfully that he has since 
been elected, successively, a member of the Fifty-first, 
Fifty-second, Fifty-third, and Fifty-fourth Congresses. 
But, Mr. Speaker, when the roll of the Fifty-fourth Con- 
gress shall be called in this Hall he will not be here to 
answer to his name. 

Many of us, Mr. Speaker, are familiar with the services 
of Philip Sidney Post during nearly eight years that he 
has been a member of this bodv, and know that he has 
been an intelligent, faithful, and efficient member. He 
has been active, earnest, and zealous in the discharge of 
his public duties, and especially in regard to whatever 
affected the interests in any way of his constituents and 
his district. For them he contended with an earnestness 
and a persistency I have seldom or never seen surpassed. 
That General POST was a man of positive convictions on 
public questions which he had investigated, and that he 
was fearless in the expression and defense of them, all who 
knew him well can testify. He was a man of undoubted 
ability and possessed all the elements necessary to make a 
strong character; and while he had rendered distinguished 
services to his country, he was always modest and unassum- 
ing and never paraded them, even before his friends. 

But, Mr. Speaker, whether in military life, where the 
souls of men are stirred to great deeds; in the consular 
service in a foreign country, where the honor and dignity 
as well as the commercial interests of his own countrv 
were involved, or here in this Hall, where important ques- 
tions of great public interest were constantly coming up 

H Mis 80 2 



18 Address of Mr. Henderson of Illinois. 

for consideration and action, General Post was always 
found to be intelligent, watchful, and faithful to duty. 

He was genial and pleasant in his intercourse with his 
fellow-members, and such was his courteous and kindly 
demeanor, as he walked into and out of this Hall from day 
to day during the years of his service here, that I think 
it can be truly said he won the universal respect of every 
member of the House who knew him, and his death was 
deeply regretted by all. 

Mr. Speaker, the life work of General POST is closed for- 
ever; but he has not lived in vain. His life has been useful 
to the community in which he lived and to his country, 
and he leaves behind him a record for distinguished pub- 
lic service, and a name which is a rich heritage for his 
bereaved wife 'and children, his family and friends, and 
which will form a bright page in his country's historv. 

Mr. Speaker, I was one of the committee appointed by 
the House to accompany the remains of our departed 
friend to his home and his final resting place. And all of 
us can testify to the evidences of universal respect and sor- 
row which were manifested by the people of the citv of 
Galesburg, in which General Post had for so manv vears 
made his home. The whole city seemed to be in mourn- 
ing, business was suspended, the stores and many private 
residences were draped in mourning, and it seemed that the 
entire population of the city and surrounding country had 
turned out to honor their distinguished citizen and soldier, 
their able and faithful Representative, who had been so 
suddenly stricken down by the icy hand of death. 

It was evident, Mr. Speaker, to everyone who witnessed 
the demonstrations of sorrow and respect manifested in 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 19 

honor of General Post that he had a strong' hold upon the 
hearts and affections of the people among whom he had 
lived and whom he had so ably and faithfully served in war 
and in peace. Sorrowing citizens from every part of his 
district, and many from other portions of the State, and 
especially large numbers of his old comrades in arms, were 
present to pay a last tribute of respect to their faithful 
Representative, whom they honored and loved. 

Mr. Speaker, I can not close this tribute of respect to the 
memory of rav departed friend and colleague without ex- 
pressing the deep sympathy I feel for his noble and grief- 
stricken wife and children. They bore themselves so nobly 
and so bravely in their great sorrow as to command the 
respect and tender regard of all who witnessed it. May 
God bless and comfort them in their great bereavement. 

Mr. Speaker, it was a bright and beautiful winter's day 
when, in the cemetery of his own beloved city, in the pres- 
ence of a sorrowing multitude, the bugle sounded ''Lights 
out," and we laid away at rest all that was mortal of Gen. 
Philip Sidxey Post, the brave soldier, the patriotic citizen, 
the able and faithful Representative and statesman. All 
honor to his memorv! 



20 Address of Mr. Grout of Vermont. 



Address of Mr. Grout. 

Mr. Speaker: My first acquaintance with Philip Sidney 
Post, late a member of this House from the State of Illi- 
nois, was in the Fiftieth Congress, although I came near 
knowing him at the Poughkeepsie law school, where he 
was a student in 1855, just ahead of my own entrance into 
that institution, in 1S56. He was admitted to the bar in 
Illinois in 1856, and entered at once into active practice, 
taking good rank in the profession. 

Very soon, however, with our deceased brother as with 
thousands of others in that day, were the peaceful encoun- 
ters of the courts suddenly exchanged for the bustle of the 
camp and the fearful onset of battle. 

Young Post was among the first to rallv in defense of 
the flag and for the preservation of the Union. He was at 
once recognized as brave and capable, and accordinglv rap- 
idlv rose from the lowest commissioned grade to be brevet 
brigadier-general. 

He was a second lieutenant in the Fifty-ninth Illinois 
Infantry June 8, 1861; was adjutant July 21, 1861; major 
January 1, 1862; colonel March 9, 1862, and brevet briga- 
dier-general December 16, 1864, the date of the battle of 
Xashville, where his conduct was exceptionally gallant 
and where he was severely wounded. His promotion to be 
colonel was also marked by a severe wound in the battle 
of Pea Ridge, March 7, two days before the date of his 
commission. 

His command while in the Army was nearly all the time 
out of proportion to his rank, being much of the time of a 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 21 

brigade and some of the time of a division, thereby show- 
ing plainer than words can tell the confidence reposed in 
him by his superior officers, with whom his standing was 
deservedly high. 

Not alone, however, did his soldierly qualities fix atten- 
tion with his superiors, but in a marked degree did he com- 
mand the confidence and esteem of the officers and men 
under his command, thereby enabling him always to keep 
abreast, if not ahead, of what was expected of him. His 
militarv career was, in short, a well-rounded success, and 
would alone entitle him to a place in the history of his 
State and the nation. But his civil life was little less 
distinguished. 

At the close of the war he returned to his profession; 
but had hardly gathered up the broken threads of his 
earlv practice when, in 1S66, he was appointed by Presi- 
dent Johnson consul to Vienna. And so satisfactory was 
his service that he was continued by President Grant, who, 
in 1874 promoted him to be consul-general for Austria- 
Hungary, which office he held till 1879, when he resigned, 
having been for thirteen years in the consular service — a 
long period under the present American system, which 
keeps not only consular and diplomatic offices but all others 
subject to the rise and fall of political parties. 

This long-continued acquaintance of General Post with 
American commercial interests abroad made him an ear- 
nest advocate of a permanent consular system, wholly inde- 
pendent of party politics, as calculated to secure greater 
efficiency and so more effectually serve and protect the com- 
mercial rights of the American people in foreign countries. 
And in the consideration of this and cognate questions in 



22 Address of Mr. Grout of Vermont. 

this body, from time to time, his opinions were always 
received with respectful attention. They were really help- 
ful in the solution of all questions connected with our 
foreign service. 

After General Post's return from his long and honor- 
able residence abroad he found himself irresistibly drawn 
into the politics of his State and district. He served four 
years, from 1882 to 1886, as member at large on the Illi- 
nois Republican State central committee. 

His old comrades, also, again gathered around him, and 
in 1886 placed him at their head as commander of the 
Grand Army of the Republic for the Department of Illi- 
nois. Thev had in the long ago been with him in the 
shock of battle; and after twenty years of peace they 
formed again at his command, but only in memory of that 
sad but heroic time. 

General Post's political star was now ascendant in his 
Congressional district; and the same year he was elected to 
a seat in this House, which he held continuously till his 
death. He was also reelected to the Fifty-fourth Congress. 
This plainly shows the full esteem and confidence in which 
he was held by the people of his district, who always felt 
a just pride in his service here, which was alike honorable 
to him and them. 

His committee work was always careful and conscien- 
tious. I speak from personal knowledge of that in the 
Fifty-first Congress, during which time we were associates 
on the District of Columbia Committee, and at a time, too, 
when important questions involving large interests were 
up for consideration. 

General Post was not a neutral quantity, but a man of 
opinions and convictions, and never wanting in courage to 



Life ami Services of Philip Sidney Post. 23 

express them, though always with proper respect for those 
of others. This, coupled with a quick perception and a 
high sense of honor, made him always useful and reliable, 
and gave him good rank, indeed excellent rank, as citizen, 
lawyer, soldier, consul, and lawmaker. 

Rut in the midst of usefulness, in the full maturity of his 
powers, and in apparently perfect health, with no hint of 
weakness or decay, the summons came, and our friend was 
hurried over the river before his fellows in this House so 
much as knew of his illness. 

It is true the corporal form was left and has since been 
lowered by loving hands into the arms of our common 
mother, but the part that animated the clay and for the 
time made it something more than dust, that had intelli- 
gence and moral perception; that loved, hoped, and feared; 
that part, on service of warrant by the Rider on the pale 
horse, mysteriously left its tenement here never to return — 
the very suddenness of the departure saying to us all, "Be 
ye also ready." 

Air. Speaker, occurrences like this bring us face to face 
with the unfathomable mystery of death, equaled only by 
the greater mystery of life. In fact, all is mystery. Man's 
origin, existence, and destiny are all wrapped in mystery, 
and only for the Book of Books and the hope and faith 
which it inspires all would be darkness both at the begin- 
ning and at the end. Possibly, however, hardly that; for 
since the creation of man, in all ages and among all tribes 
and peoples, both civilized and savage, there has existed 
with many a belief in a future state, and with all a desire 
for it; and reason, unassisted by revelation, leads to the 
conclusion that, as throughout the material world man's 



24 Address of Mr. Grout of I ermont. 

desire for a thing' is proof of its existence, so it would be 
unreasonable to say that in the spiritual domain he was 
hungering and thirsting after that which had no existence; 
unreasonable to say that this law that runs through all 
nature, supplying everywhere in response to demand, and 
even in this mortal state feeding the spiritual man accord- 
ing to desire, does not apply to the soul's universal prayer 
that it may live beyond the tomb. 

Here, then, seems to be a ray of hope outside of revela- 
tion; but the Word of God is, after all, our reliance. That 
tells us in simple phrase not only of the origin of the race, 
how "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man 
became a living soul," but it also lights up the portals of 
the grave. 

It contains the express promise of man's resurrection 
from the dead: "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ 
shall all be made alive." 

To such, however, as are not satisfied with this author- 
ity, but perchance have been led by eloquence and wit and 
good digestion at three hundred dollars a night to deny 
its authenticity, I can only say, in the language of Long- 
fellow' s ' ' Golden Legend ' ' : 

There is no confessor like unto Death! 

Thou canst not see him, but he is near; 
Thou needest not whisper above thy breath, 

Ami he will hear; 
He will answer the questions, 
The vague surmises and suggestions, 

That till thy soul with doubt and fear ! 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 25 



Address of Mr. Lane. 

Mr. SPEAKER: It is written that all men must die. No 
one is exempt from this fatal decree. We live to die and 
die to live for evermore, thanks to that fatal decree that 
has so ordained our being, for it opens to us the visions of 
endless life. 

It is said that death is the golden key that opens the pal- 
ace of eternity and grants us the crown of life. Men die 
that they may die no more. This is a world of pain, of 
tears, and death; the next is a world of everlasting joy and 
eternal life. The Angel of Death has again passed through 
this Chamber. We almost heard the moving of his wings 
as he summoned from our midst our friend, Gen. Philip 
Sidney Post, a Representative from the Commonwealth of 
Illinois. 

On Friday afternoon I was engaged with him for some 
time in private conversation in this Hall about the condi- 
tion of the country and the prospects of legislation; on the 
Sunday morning following I heard of his sudden death. 
General Post had just passed the sixty-second milestone in 
his life's journey, and in the full meridian of his physical 
and mental manhood he ceased his earthly labors and laid 
himself down and died. I knew of General Post for many 
years, but never had the pleasure of meeting him until I 
saw him here in the first session of the Fiftieth Congress. 
I soon became acquainted with him, and during the eight 
years of our service here together I enjoyed his company 
verv much. 



26 'Address of Mr. Lane of Illinois. 

< ieneral POST was no ordinary man, but rather one capa- 
ble of filling the highest position in the gift of a free 
people. When elected to Congress the first time he pos- 
sessed a national reputation. At the outbreak of the war 
he entered the Armv as a second lieutenant, and for gal- 
lant and meritorious services in many a well-fought battle 
he was promoted to first lieutenant and adjutant, then to 
major, colonel, and finally to brigadier-general. After the 
war he served his country for over thirteen years in the 
consular service, and became distinguished as the repre- 
sentative of this nation in foreign lands. In the fall of 1886 
he was elected a member of Congress, and has four times 
since been reelected his own successor, in the last election 
receiving over 13,000 majority over his competitor. 

He was deservedly popular with his people, and no 
member of Congress from any State served his constituents 
more intelligently and faithfully than did our deceased col- 
league. Politically General Post was a Republican, patri- 
otic and sincere. He was firm in his political beliefs, but 
he was wholly unmindful of the party lash. When he 
could not agree with his party he had the courage of his 
convictions and exercised the right to vote as his concience 
dictated. Thus, on the silver question he refused to fol- 
low his party, and spoke and voted for the free coinage of 
silver, and I may say that his speech on this question, 
delivered in this Chamber in May, 1S90, was a strong one, 
full of earnest thought and patriotic utterances. He said, 
on that occasion : "I am in favor, as the fathers of the 
Republic were in favor, of the full use of both gold and 
silver as money. Whatever proposed legislation tends to 
that end I will support; whatever does not will meet my 
earnest opposition." 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 27 

Brave and noble words were these uttered by our col- 
league, and I may say of him that few men in this country 
were as well informed on the financial question as General 
Post. 

He made the subject one of profound study, and he dis- 
cussed it with great ability and learning 011 the floor of this 
House, on the platform and the hustings. It was impossi- 
ble to know General Post and not to admire and love him. 
He was a jurist, soldier, and statesman, a noble citizen and 
a good man. The memorv of his useful life and his shining, 
spotless character is a more valuable inheritance to his chil- 
dren than all worldly riches. His family adored and wor- 
shiped him, and all his neighbors loved and admired this 
manly man. 

I was appointed by this House as one of the Congres- 
sional committee to attend the funeral. On Monday night, 
January 7, 1895, we took his casket from the hotel in 
this city to the depot. From thence we bore it over the 
Alleghany Mountains, and across the States of Ohio and 
Indiana, to his prairie home in the great State of Illinois. 
We reached there on the morning of the 9th day of Jan- 
uary. The bod}- was then taken to the rotunda of the 
court-house, where it lay in state until 2 o'clock. All 
business was suspended in the city, and the entire pop- 
ulation, irrespective of party, race, creed, or class, turned 
out and paid their respects to their deceased friend and 
fellow-citizen. People came from all parts of the State to 
attend the funeral, and a touching feature connected with 
the ceremony was the presence of a vast number of the 
Grand Army of the Republic, in whose ranks were nu- 
merous soldiers who had followed General Post in manv a 



28 Address of Mr. Lane of Illinois. 

well-fought battle during the war of the rebellion. Upon 
their rugged and manly faces was plainly seen the sincere 
and profound sorrow they all felt for their dead commander. 

At 2 o'clock the remains were taken to the church, 
where, in the presence of an immense gathering of the 
people, religious services were held; and then, about the 
setting of the sun, we bore the remains to the silent city 
of the dead, where the funeral services were concluded. 

From the church to the cemetery the sides of the streets 
were crowded with people along the entire way; both sexes, 
all ages, classes, and conditions, reverently stood with uncov- 
vered heads while the remains passed by. And there in 
that quiet and lonely spot, in that silent city of the dead, 
the casket, covered with the Stars and Stripes, containing 
the earthly remains of General Post, was lowered to its 
final resting place, where we left him sleeping in peace and 
honor. 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 29 



ADDRESS OF MR. BYNUM. 

Mr. Speaker: It is in no merely perfunctory manner that 
I participate in the exercises of the House on this occasion. 
In the great strife for success in this active world we are 
often carried along in the exciting rush of the multitude, 
and at times unmindful that many, weary of the journey, 
have fallen by the wayside. It is only when some con- 
spicuous character has been stricken down that the tread of 
the throng becomes noiseless and harsh voices engaged in 
bitter contention are subdued to the gentler tones of sym- 
pathy and sorrow. 

In the closing hours of this Congress, with a Calendar 
burdened with important measures affecting the interests of 
private individuals almost without number, as well as those 
of a public character designed to promote the prosperity- of 
all, we lay aside for the hour the business of legislation to 
pay a tribute to the memory and place upon record for all 
time our admiration for the noble traits of character so con- 
spicuously possessed and exemplified in the private as well 
as public life by one whom we all respected and honored 
and were proud to call our friend. 

It is no discredit to the living nor any reflection upon the 
dead who were colleagues of General Post to say that he 
was, during the whole of his service, the most respected 
and beloved of all. There was no affectation in his manner; 
no fulsome flattery fell from his lips. He was always the 
same affable gentleman, free from guile or bitterness; with- 
out ostentation, dignified, courteous, and manly in all his 



30 Address of Mr, Bynnin of Indiana. 

bearing, It lias been claimed that nature, the influences of 
suns and seasons, the surrounding scenery, the hills, the 
mountains, the streams, the plains, the forests, and the 
flowers, sway and mold the character of a people. Whether 
this be a fact or not, it is certainly true that the character 
of General Post was emblematic of his surroundings. 

The great prairies of the West, in the midst of which he 
spent the most of his life, have been gorgeously described 
as the domain above which "the sun at his zenith seems to 
linger in admiration and wonder for a moment in his cease- 
less course to the Pacific, where the icy blasts of the north 
are melted to cool breezes in the warm embrace of the sultry 
winds of the south, and where, under the influence of all 
that is inspiring, the soul of an American citizen rises to 
the full measure. of his country's opportunities and his own 
duties." His nature and disposition were as smooth as the 
broad plains which surrounded him, and his magnanimity 
and patriotism as boundless as the skies above him. 

It is not for me to speak of the great services which he 
rendered his country in both civil and military life; this has 
been done by Representatives from his own State. Enter- 
ing the Union Army as a lieutenant at less than twenty- 
nine vears of age, by his courage and bravery he was by 
brevet made a brigadier-general before the close of the war. 
His soldierly qualities were the more to be admired because 
he never mentioned them, much less boasted of them. A 
man of true courage is wholly destitute of the proclivities 
of a braggart. Modesty was the predominant trait of his 
character. 

His uniform, displaying his various ranks from that of 
lieutenant to brigadier-general, stained with his patriotic 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 31 

blood from a frightful wound received in battle, inclosed in 
a modest case at his home in Galesburg, where it was viewed 
bv the members of the committee which accompanied his 
remains in the evening after we had laid him away to rest, 
presents a history and a record that I would rather enjoy 
and transmit as a legacy to future generations than all the 
riches of the Rothschilds or all the honors that could be 
acquired in civil life. 

The great esteem in which General Post was held by his 
townspeople, his constituents, and the citizens of his State 
was evidenced by the emblems of mourning everywhere dis- 
played and the universal sorrow expressed at his death and 
the great honors which were paid to his remains on the 
day of his funeral. Distinguished citizens from all parts of 
the State were present. All business was suspended. The 
funeral procession, composed of civil and military organiza- 
tions and a concourse of citizens, was the largest and most 
imposing ever seen in the place. In the procession were 
a large number of Grand Army veterans, whose features 
plaiulv portrayed the privations and hardships of the army 
life through which they had passed and whose step and 
posture silently told of declining years and advancing dis- 
solution. 

It was not, however, wholly the public services of Gen- 
eral Post that endeared him to his people. It was because 
of those noble traits of character which distinguished him 
in social life here and elsewhere, and which he practiced 
around the fireside of his home, in the family circle of do- 
mestic life, that he was enshrined in the affections of his 
friends and neighbors as well as of his wife and children. 
He was the companion of his wife in all her joys and 



32 Address of Mr. Bynum of Indiana. 

griefs; a devoted husband, ready to make the smallest or 
the greatest sacrifice that would contribute to her solace 
and pleasure. To his children he was not only a father 
but a companion, to whom they could go and in whom 
they could confide with an assurance of sympathy in all of 
their trials and troubles. 

It is impossible for the finite mind to fathom the mys- 
teries of Providence. Certainly the death of General Post, 
bound to earth by every link that chained together a de- 
voted husband and a loving wife, an affectionate father and 
adoring children, with not a single cloud in the skies to 
obscure the sunshine of their happiness, surrounded with 
every comfort and endeared to his people by a faithful and 
conspicuous service in their behalf in the Halls of Congress 
and upon the fields of battle, is more than we can compre- 
hend except by an implicit faith in the promises of the 
Redeemer. 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 33 



ADDRESS OF MR. GROSVENOR. 

Mr. Speaker: If it can be said now, or at any time, that 
it is a pleasure to speak words of praise of the dead, this 
would be to me an occasion where my brief effort would be 
a labor of love. 

Philip Sidney Post was the type of a host of young 
men in this country who in 1861 went into the war for the 
single, undivided, patriotic purpose of putting down a re- 
bellion that threatened the autonomy and integrity of the 
country, and for the sole purpose of restoring the Union of 
the States and the supremacy of the Constitution. It was 
not ambition that led them thus to sacrifice home and ma- 
terial interests; it was patriotism. It was not the hope of 
self-aggrandizement; it was the love of country, and in that 
Mr. Post was a representative of that type of men of 1861. 

I do not in this remark intend to discriminate against the 
men who went later, and there are a great many reasons why 
I do not. There were those who did not feel that they were 
called upon to enter the ranks of the Union Army until the 
necessitv grew greater than it seemed to be in 1861. We 
were told that the war was to be of short duration, to speed- 
ily close with a great victory for the Union; and so it was 
that many, burdened by other cares and other engagements, 
hesitated. There were also those, and many of them, who 
afterwards became a splendid component part of the Union 
forces, who were not old enough in 1861, but became old 
enough in the later years of that struggle to be valuable 
and efficient soldiers. But the men of 1861 — who laid aside 
H Mis 80 — 3 



54 Address of Mr. Grosvenor of Ohio. 

their occupations; the men who had position at home, who 
had something to do; the men who made sacrifices for the 
single-hearted purpose of which I have spoken — to save 
the Union — and who stayed in the Army during the war, 
who were present when the great triumph of the cause for 
which they fought came — after all have something to recom- 
mend them which is notable and conspicuous and belongs 
to them alone. 

There can be no words of eulogy of ours on this occa- 
sion that will testify so eloquently and so irresistiblv to the 
grand and the soldierly qualities of our dead comrade as 
the record itself. It was not an easy matter to rise from a 
second lieutenant in 1861 to become so soon the colonel 
nt' a regiment and to be intrusted with the command of 
a brigade and 'a division by the rapid ratio of promotion 
which was his lot. 

It was a war, Mr. Speaker, that did not develop the suc- 
cessful humbug. It was a war that ultimately decided the 
merits of men. A great many entered the service in 1861 
with the insignia of the eagle on their shoulders, and yet 
found themselves at an early period in the year 1862 glad 
to be allowed the retirement of home, while others took 
their places and went forward to achieve triumph. So the 
man who achieved promotion under the eyes of the great 
leaders of the army in which General Post served was a 
man necessarily of more than ordinary character and more 
than ordinary soldierly qualities and ability. 

I did not know this distinguished officer until a late 
period in the war, and I wish I could describe the first time 
I ever saw him. I wish I could paint with words a pic- 
ture adequate to the occasion. It was on the 16th da}- of 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 35 

December, 1864, at the battle of Nashville. The troops with 
whom I was serving were on the extreme left of the attack 
on ( >verton Hill, and the brigade of General Post was on 
the left of Wood's corps, and his left joined the right of 
the troops with whom I was serving. The attack was made 
in the afternoon, about 3 o'clock, perhaps half an hour 
earlier. It was the second day of the great decisive battle 
of Nashville. 

It was a battle in which those who served in the Army 
of the Cumberland during the whole of these memorable 
years take special interest. I remember very well when 
a gallant young commander of the regiment to which I 
belonged, and had commanded, mounted his horse in the 
twilight of the morning of the 15th, moved to the head of 
the regiment, and said to me, ' ' This is the first battle that 
old Pap Thomas ever commanded on his own account and 
without anybody to interfere with him, and vou will see 
the shortest, sharpest, and the cleanest-cut victory of this 
war. ' ' 

His words came true. But when they did come, his 
bloody body lay there full against the earthwork of the 
enemy at Raines's house. General Thomas on that occa- 
sion demonstrated to the people of this country and to the 
intelligent people of the world something of the character- 
istics of the man whom we now so fondly cherish in our 
memories. As early as the 6th of December an organized 
attempt — I will not characterize the mistakes of the dead — 
had been made to drive Thomas into a battle. He was 
there; others were at far distant points. 

The question was a question of organization of rapidlv 
accumulating forces and the fitting of men and horses for 



36 Address of Mr. Grosvenor- of Ohio. 

the coming engagement. The general who had never 
made a mistake in four years of service was better calcu- 
lated to judge of the emergency than the men in civil life 
sitting at the other end of a telegraph line and operating 
upon the prejudices or judgment of the great general down 
in Virginia. And so it was that General Thomas refused to 
be driven into that battle, and day by day, from early dawn 
until late in the night, worked with a patience and assidu- 
ity that challenged the admiration of every soldier under 
him to prepare his command for battle. And finally, when 
the peremptory order was sent to him to make an attack 
on the next morning at a certain hour, he telegraphed: 

( j iiiiitry is all covered with sleet. If anything tries to move here it will slip up. 

Six days afterwards, with his successor within one hun- 
dred and fifty miles, coming with a commission to super- 
sede him, Thomas moved when he got ready upon a plan 
of battle of his own, and achieved the splendid victory of 
Nashville. 

Prominent in that battle was the corps of Stanley, but 
Stanley was not there to command it. He had fallen under 
a terrible wound in the sanguinary conflict in the latter days 
of November at Franklin. Wood was in command; and on 
the left, on that bloody second clay, holding a position of 
danger and honor, and holding it with confidence in him- 
self and with the confidence of every man in his command, 
was Philip Sidney Post. 

It was then for the first time that I met him or saw him. 
He had made an assault upon Overton Hill, a strongly forti- 
fied position which we could not flank, but which could be 
enveloped upon the right and upon the left. Near the left, 
toward the very salient of the work, marched the brigade of 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 37 

Post. It became important that I should try to have a 
personal conference with him. As his column moved for- 
ward the awful fire of shot and shell from the salient of the 
enemy's works struck his column full in the front. At 
that moment the scene and surroundings were awful in a 
grandeur such as I had never before witnessed. 

It was on a December day, the condition of the weather 
substantially like that of fall or spring in more northern 
latitudes. A terrific thunderstorm was playing. The artil- 
lerv of heaven was joining with the artillery of man — the 
thunder rolled, the lightning flashed, and the great column 
of men, hopeful, enthusiastic, confident of victory, had been 
told by Thomas that it was possible for them to capture 
that hill, to put an end to the battle, and to make an end of 
Hood's gallant army. 

It was not an easy army to overcome, for behind it were 
hunger, famine, defeat, and destruction, while in front of 
it were the homes of more than half of the men of that 
army. Nashville for winter quarters, the Ohio River for 
the dividing line between the two armies, and the hope of 
a successful occupation of Tennessee and Kentucky during 
the winter — these were the thoughts presented to their 
minds. Thev were led by such men as Hood, Cheatham, 
Maney, and others of their most distinguished leaders and 
fighters. So when Hood's army made its final stand upon 
Overton Hill, behind its great fortifications, with its artil- 
lery pouring its terrible fire down, it took a man of cour- 
age to lead the heaviest of the assault upon the worst angle 
of the works, the most salient and deadly of the enemy's 
defenses. 



38 Address of Mr. Grosvenor of Ohio. 

To that place was assigned Philip Sidney Post, of 
Illinois. I remember very well how he looked, although 
he was at some little distance from me. He was calm, 
imperturbable, absolutely unaffected by the surroundings, 
simply going right at the great object that was in front 
of him. Suddenly his column in front wavered, halted, 
became entangled in confusion, and, as another terrific ava- 
lanche of shot and shell struck his column, he, pressing 
to the front upon his horse, was struck, and fell, "horse 
and rider in one red burial blent." I turned from my 
fruitless effort to have an interview with him, and left 
him, as I supposed, dead upon the battlefield. 

General Thomas telegraphed that night the modest dis- 
patch announcing the victory, announcing the capture of 
thirty pieces of artillery in the angle of Overton Hill, 
announcing the capture of a large force of the enemy, 
and then stating that one of the saddest features of that 
victorv was the loss to the Army of the Cumberland of the 
gallant General POST, of Illinois, whom he stated had been 
shot dead. It was months before we knew that he was 
alive, and I never met him again until I met him here as a 
member of Congress. 

Here I saw him and talked with him, associated with 
him everywhere, spoke with him about the war, spoke 
with him about Nashville, and I do not remember a man 
who spoke of great events like those, in which he had 
been a great actor, in which he had achieved undying 
honor and imperishable fame, who yet talked about those 
events and joined in the conversation as a mere matter of 
everyday concern. I have never heard him respond, even 
by a single word, to any suggestion in regard to the splen- 
did part which he himself played in that brilliant contest. 



Life and Sen ices of Philip Sidney Post. 39 

Mr. Speaker, I will not pursue this subject further. I 
have spoken upon this branch of the subject on this occa- 
sion from a heart full of comradeship, a heart overflowing 
with love for the man whom we mourn. If there was in 
all the range of my acquaintance a man who was a true 
type of the splendid American volunteer soldier that man 
was Philip Sidney Post, of Illinois. 

Brave, wise, not reckless, not heedless, always cautious, 
always careful, but always going to the point where he was 
ordered to go, lie was an intelligent soldier, a soldier who 
represented that intelligence that made the Union Army 
of the Xortli in 1864 the best organized, the most sensible, 
and the most powerful body of men of equal numbers per- 
haps that had ever shouldered the musket up to that time 
in all the history of the world. 

I came here to testify this much in his honor. I am 
here, figuratively speaking, to shed a tear over his untimely 
death. A man who could develop as he did in war times, 
a man who could grasp the conditions that followed the 
war, a man who could achieve success in so many and 
such varied branches of life in which he was thrown by 
his fellow-men ought, it would seem to me, to have lived 
to a later and riper age, so that he might have demon- 
strated what it is possible for an American to achieve in this 
country of ours. 



40 Address of Mr. Clarke of Alabama. 



ADDRESS OF MR. CLARKE OF ALABAMA. 

Mr. Speaker: It may not be altogether amiss that one 
who has not had the advantage of a long and close associa- 
tion with General Post should record a sincere appreciation 
of his manly character and honorable career. 

I knew him first in the early days of the Fifty-first Con- 
gress, a period of intense bitterness. No two men could 
have been farther apart in antecedents, training, and con- 
victions on most public questions; yet I instinctively recog- 
nized in him a generous, kindly, and just man, bringing to 
bear upon every subject strong sense, ripe experience, and 
an earnest desire for the promotion of the welfare of every 
part of his country. He carried upon his body dreadful 
wounds received in the very front of battle. Others have 
said that he frequently suffered intense pain from them to 
the clay of his death. His acquaintances, his everyday asso- 
ciates, never heard a complaint from him. As modest as 
he was brave, proud, as no man could have failed to be, of 
his record as a soldier, he never obtruded it upon the House 
or made it a theme of ordinary conversation. He did not 
need to do so; his comrades and his commanding officers 
bore witness to it; his one time foes, his later friends, hon- 
ored him for it; it is graven in his country's history, a 
page of its glory. Fame found him where duty led him. 

I have alluded to the honor and esteem in which he was 
held on this side of the House. 

With the old Confederate soldiers here, serving in war in 
his front, dealing him wounds and receiving from him full 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 41 

measure in return, there was more than mere respect; there 
was a genuine and hearty liking. They felt that no thought, 
word, or vote of his was actuated by sectional bitterness. 
He had been a magnificent enemy in war; he was a sincere 
friend in peace. Humanity and his country are the better 
that he has lived, the poorer that an untimely death has 
stilled a wise brain, a brave soul, and a kind heart. 



Address ol Mr. Lucas of South Dakota. 



Address of Mr. Lucas. 

Mr. Speaker: When I recall Philip Sidney Post I am 
impressed with the belief that he was no ordinary man. 
His long pnblic career is evidence of superior ability. He 
possessed qualities of head and heart that peculiarly fitted 
him as a useful and valuable citizen and equipped him 
splendidly for his public career. The career of General 
Post was one of success from early manhood until death. 
His every step demonstrated his capacity and the match- 
less worth of the free institutions of our great Republic in 
offering possibilities to the youth of our country. 

In his early life he chose the law as a profession, and was 
advancing with rapid strides to eminence in his calling when 
his attention was wrested from his books and briefs and 
directed toward the theater of war. 

My information is that General Post was a most promis- 
ing young lawyer and was forging his way to distinction and 
honor when he abandoned all and entered the Army as a 
soldier. In his new relations the same elements of char- 
acter were soon developed that had marked him as a rising 
young lawyer. He adapted himself to military life and 
imbibed so readily and accurately the spirit of discipline 
so necessary to make an army effective that his superiors 
recognized in him the material for a leader. Promotion 
came to him without seeking, and as his responsibilities 
increased the latent powers in the man were brought out, 
proving his worth and ability. 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 43 

As a soldier General Post was admirable. Though twice 
wounded in battle, once believed to be, and reported, mor- 
tally, he never faltered or wavered in his determination to 
remain in the field until the end. He was a skillful com- 
mander — cool, cautious, and brave and dashing in time of 
action. At the termination of the war his wounds were 
so severely afflicting as to incapacitate him from entering 
upon his profession. 

In 1866 he was appointed consul to Vienna and promoted 
to consul-general for Austria-Hungary to represent this 
country. In those capacities he remained abroad for thir- 
teen years. His courtesy and suavity won him the pro- 
found respect and admiration of the people among whom 
he dwelt. The dignity and honor of our country were fit- 
tingly represented and personified in the person of General 
Post. 

On his return home to Galesburg, 111., he was not long 
left to enjoy the comforts and pleasures of domestic life, 
but was called to serve that intelligent and rich district 
upon this floor. For eight years he did so with ability and 
fidelity, and last November he was elected to serve a fifth 
term. 

I first met General Post, so as to become personallv 
acquainted with him, in 1886, while he was department 
commander of the Grand Army of the Republic of Illinois. 
I knew much of his history as a soldier before that date, 
and admired him as a dashing officer ; but when I came to 
know him personally, I discovered traits in his personality 
that greatly increased my admiration and drew me close to 
him as a comrade and a man. 



44 Address of Mr. Lucas of South Dakota. 

In the rush of military and official life he drew to him- 
self close and warm friends beyond his vicinage. As I wit- 
nessed the swaying throng of sorrowing people who passed 
with measured tread and bowed heads at his home in Gales- 
burg to look upon his calm face as it lay in state I was con- 
vinced that nowhere was he more highly esteemed than at 
his own home. 

The honors and distinction he bore were won in the line 
of active duty faithfully discharged. In the forum and on 
the hustings he was a tower of strength, not for his elo- 
quence, but because of his candor, sincerity, and unques- 
tioned integrity. The people believed in Philip Sidney 
Post, and he believed in the common people. His honesty 
and tireless industry gave him a place in the hearts of his 
constituents such as few men attain. 

But others are far abler to speak of him as a statesman 
and diplomat than I am. As a comrade of that great army 
of soldiers who spent bitter hours of trial let me remember 
and speak of him. The marble monuments builded by 
grateful hands will crumble and fall, but the memory of 
the heroic and honorable career of Philip Sidney Post 
will live on, because it is preserved in story and history. 

He went out, as we all must go, at the summons from on 
high. Did he go to the deathless solitude of forgetfulness? 
We believe not. The longings of the human heart in all 
the ages is well expressed by Cato, when he savs: 

Plato, thou reasonest well ! 

Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire. 

This longing after immortality? 

Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, 

Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul 

Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 

'Tis the divinity that stirs within us. 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 45 



Address of Mr. Wheeler of Alabama. 

Mr. Speaker: Gen. Philip Sidney Post possessed in 
an eminent degree qualities which are admired by people 
of all classes and conditions. He was one of the most dis- 
tinguished military men in the present Congress, having by 
his verv gallant and efficient service risen rapidly from the 
grade of second lieutenant to that of brigade commander. 
He was twice very severely wounded in battle, and he 
enjoyed the admiration of his soldiers and subordinate 
officers and was very highly regarded by all his superior 
commanders. 

Soon after the war he was appointed consul to Vienna, 
and on account of his marked merit was promoted to the 
post of consul-general of Austria-Hungary. 

One quality of General Post's character which must 
have been observed by all his associates was his unaffected 
modesty. Notwithstanding his very distinguished service 
as a soldier and his long and valued experience as a diplo- 
mat at foreign courts, his most intimate friends seldom, if 
ever, heard him make any allusion to himself in connection 
with any of the events which had given him prominence 
and distinction. 

It was my good fortune to enjoy a pleasantly close 
acquaintance with General Post, and but a few hours before 
he was seized with the fatal sickness which so suddenly 
terminated his earthly career I met him and his family 
at an entertainment and had quite a lengthy conversation 
with him. His hold on life then seemed to me as certain 



46 Address of Mr. Wheeler of Alabama. 

as that of any person in that vast assemblage. It was late 
Friday night when I bade him adieu, and I conld hardly 
comprehend the possibility of its truth when on Sunday 
morning I received the sad intelligence of his death. 

Regarding the services of General Post in Congress, all 
the members of the present House and Senate are well 
informed. He ranked among the first in ability, learning, 
and culture; and in sterling integrity and courageous con- 
ception and execution of duty he had few equals. 

Gentlemen from Illinois who are more familiar with 
the details of General Post's career than I am have told 
us of the useful and beautiful life of their lamented col- 
league at his home in the State he served so well and 
which delighted to honor him. 

It is most appropriate that we should pause in our duties 
to express our grief at the death of a man like General 
Post, and to place on record our testimony to his noble 
character and exalted worth. 

In the beautiful cemetery at his Galesburg home, in the 
midst of the people who loved and honored him and sur- 
rounded by those who survive of the valorous veterans he 
so bravely led, what is mortal of Philip Sidney Post will 
rest forever. 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. \- 



address of Mr. Dolliver. 

Mr. Speaker: I desire to join with my friend from Illi- 
nois and his associates in this House in a few words of 
tribute to the memory of General Post. I remember upon 
my entrance into the Fifty-first Congress the kindly greet- 
ing of General Post, and in the latter years of his service 
it was my privilege to enjoy a somewhat intimate personal 
acquaintance with him. Long before his death I had often 
thought and spoken of him as a splendid example of what 
a man of signal ability and high character was able to 
achieve in a generation such as that in which he lived. It 
seldom happens to anyone to be great both in military and 
civil life. 

The records of the war of the rebellion show that among 
the really great military commanders developed by that 
struggle General Post's name ought to occupy a notable 
place. Not only measured by his sacrifices, but measured 
by his achievements, he will be accorded a high position 
in the history of the country as a successful soldier. Of 
course behind such services as he rendered the United 
States in the hour of public danger there lay a foundation 
of patriotism and an intelligent comprehension of the 
duties of citizenship in a Republic like ours; and that 
comprehension of the duties of citizenship gave to his 
career in civil life as long as he lived an eminence and 
distinction such as fall to the lot of but few men to attain. 

If I were called upon to point to the characteristic of 
General Post which most impressed those who came in 



48 Address of Mr. Dolliver of Iowa. 

contact with him, I would say that it was his extraordi- 
nary originality and strength of character. There are few 
men who go through life in places of high official distinc- 
tion and in the discharge of great duties who take so little 
of color from their surroundings as did General Post. I 
heard General Sherman, shortly after the death of General 
Grant, say of him that he had been in situations more 
lowly and more exalted than any man who ever lived in 
the world, and had been absolutely unaffected by either. 

It is to that small group of men General Post belonged. 
He was not bewildered by distinction won in the mili- 
tary service of his country; he was not encumbered by 
the offices of trust which betokened the confidence of his 
fellow-citizens. Thirteen years of continued public serv- 
ice in an eminent position in one of the most glittering 
capitals of the world, very far from coloring General 
Post's views of life, only served to emphasize and illustrate 
the sterling Americanism of his character. 

The House of Representatives gave to General Post a 
field of activity well suited to his tastes and intellectual 
gifts. He was both a student and an orator. His long 
residence abroad had familiarized him not only with the 
conditions of social and industrial life in other countries, 
but with the practical measures brought forward by states- 
men in other lands for the solution of social and industrial 
problems. No man has occupied a seat in this Chamber 
since the war who was able to bring to the discussion of 
these questions a greater store of actual knowledge or more 
thoroughly considered convictions. He takes his place 
among the leading thinkers of his time upon the complex 
problems which relate to the industrial life of the Republic. 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 1.9 

His opinions sometimes led him into an open disagreement 
with his party associates, but that disagreement never led 
him into the field of factional politics, never lost him the 
good will of those from whom he differed, or the confidence 
and respect of the leaders with whom he associated. He 
never quarreled. In fact, his great strength in the House 
came in part from the persuasive affability of his manner 
and the modest reserve of his opinions. 

While others clamored for public notoriety and wasted 
their influence in spectacular advertisement, he relied with 
cheerful assurance upon the well-tried weapons of debate 
and argument. It is no small tribute to the intellectual 
power of our departed friend to say that his own Congres- 
sional district never faltered in its support of any position 
relating to public affairs which General Post assumed after 
he had presented his views and defended his opinions be- 
fore the people upon the hustings; and no man here will 
question the sincerity which he brought into every speech 
which he delivered and every vote which he recorded on 
this floor. But whatever he accomplished in this Cham- 
ber, and however important his public service may have 
been as the representative of his country in foreign capi- 
tals, those who knew him, as they reflect upon his career, 
will always be drawn to the splendid years of his early man- 
hood when he offered his sword for the defense of the flag 
of our common country. 

His comrade, General Grosvenor, has spoken beautifully 
of him as a representative of the youth of 1861 who for- 
got the interests of home and business, and out of a pure 
patriotism entered the ranks of the Union Army to main- 
tain the integrity of the Republic. To have served even 
H Mis 80 4 



50 Address of Mr. Dolliver of Iowa. 

in a humble way in that Army gives to a man an honor 
that does not belong- to the walks of peace and to his chil- 
dren an inheritance that can not fade. But General Post, 
though he began his service in a humble station, by the 
force of military genius, joined with a courage that knew 
neither failure nor danger, ended his career with the record 
of a distinction that has become a passport to renown wher- 
ever the history of the United States attracts the interest 
and attention of men. 

It was a record based upon achievements, upon sacrifices, 
upon success, and not gained by accident or by favor. He 
fought at the front, and his maimed and broken body car- 
ried to the grave the cruel marks of the battlefield. When 
I think of what this generation owes to the men of 1861, of 
the loss and sorrow of those memorable years, I can but feel 
a new sense of gratitude to the heroic leaders whose courage 
and wisdom guided the armies of the Republic and won the 
final victory for the Union. Their names will be embalmed 
in the reverent memory of their countrymen and their fame 
become a precious heritage to all generations. 

I would like to speak of General Post as I knew him 
in the relations of friendship and daily association which 
make up so large a part of the reward of membership in 
this House. I have never known a man whose heart was 
fuller of good fellowship, of kindly sentiment, than his. 
He was a master of the art of conversation, and the group 
that gathered about him in the office of the hotel in which 
we both lodged, after the labors of the day were over, will 
not forget those quiet hours, passing often far into the night, 
which were enlivened by the wisdom of his discourse, by 
his kindly philosophy of life, and by the subtle influence 
of his gracious personality. 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 51 

He lived for his family in an atmosphere made beautiful 
by all the graces that adorn domestic life. We can not 
hope by the poor words we speak here to lighten the afflic- 
tion which has fallen so suddenly upon those he loved. 
They have the consolation which comes from the knowl- 
edge that the American people bring to the grave of Gen- 
eral Post the tribute of honor which belongs to the soldier 
and statesman, and that his life was literally given to defend 
his country and render service to his fellow-men. We can 
only commend them to God and the word of His grace, and 
as we turn away from these memorial ceremonies to the stir- 
ring and arduous affairs in which we are engaged we will 
often think and often speak of that interesting and pictur- 
esque figure in the public life of our time whose face we are 
to see no more among us. 



^2 Address <>/ Mr. Stockdale of Mississippi. 



ADDRESS OF MR. STOCKDALE, 

Mr. Speaker: The House of Representatives pauses to- 
day and suspends business to speak of life and of death. 
We do not understand either. We know that life is and 
that death will come. 

Confucius said in answer to a request to explain death: 
"How can I explain death when I do not understand life?" 

Whether the soul that vivifies the body is a new indi- 
vidual creation to exist without end, or whether a scintilla- 
tion of Jehovah flashing- out upon the world, to return to 
, its source when the carbon burns out, is mystery behind the 
veil. But wha'tever be its source or destiny, we know it 
is sublime to live. In e,very thought, in every pulsation, in 
everv ambition, in every high hope, the exultant thrill ot 
the breath of God flashes through this dual man, in whose 
person the world of mind and the world of matter first met 
in mutual acquaintance. The grim, ghastly alchemist that 
dissolves that union and terminates this glorious life we 
call Death, the dreaded enemy of mankind that only the 
Christian's hope can overcome. No philosophy can enter 
his dark abode. Whether the exit from this world is the 
entrance to the higher, grander, eternal life is not within 
the power of the horoscope. 

The invisible shore has no beacon. That bourn whence 
no traveler returns gives back no echo. Xo ray comes 
through the shadows of the dark valley. Yet there is a 
consciousness within which, as the spark received from 
across the ocean proves the existence of kindred fire on the 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 53 

other side, receives through that mystic chord from beyond 
the dark river assurances that there is life on the golden 
shore, and a sublime faith makes it bright and everlasting. 
It is of life I desire to speak to-day, not of death. 

I desire to speak of General POST as he lived, as he still 
lives in the memory of his friends and admirers and in the 
archives of this great nation. 

General Post and myself became members of the United 
States Congress at the same time— of the Fiftieth Congress. 
I met him indifferently with other Representatives who were 
strangers to me. I observed his course as a national legis- 
lator and was attracted by it, and became interested in him 
for main- reasons. I recognized him as a man of intellec- 
tual force and honesty of purpose, in whom all sections of 
the country could trust. 

He was a partisan, yes, but an honest partisan, advocating 
earnestly what he believed to be right, and with manhood 
enough to correct, as far as possible, any mistake he might 
make. 

He was conscientious of duty and alert in its discharge, 
but not narrow or sectional. His idea of duty compre- 
hended justice to the whole nation. He was ambitious, but 
his aspirations were to rise upon merit to the level of great 
men, and had none of that ignoble temper to pull others 
down. He had much of the spirit that would raise mortals 
to the skies, and none of that other spirit that would drag 
angels down. He wanted the country to become great, and 
wanted all the people to rise with it. He had a heart big- 
enough to rejoice in the prosperity of all parts of the coun- 
try, and despised oppression. When the clouds gathered 
over this land of the brave, and thickened and darkened 



54 Address of Mr. Stockdale of Mississippi. 

and finally burst into the storm of war, Lieutenant Post 
did not hesitate to enter the field where giants grappled. 
He wielded his battle-ax fiercely, but when peace perched 
on the banner of the Union to General POST'S vision its 
wings were white, and he had no desire to circumscribe 
their expanse. No frown disfigured his brow. Without 
malice he hailed the triumph of arms as the triumph of 
peace, and the triumph of peace as the harbinger of good 
will and restored prosperity to all the land. There was no 
grasping hands across chasms; to him there was no chasm. 
Peace closed the breach forever, and we were one people. 
He did not know a North and a South, an East and a West, 
but as a Representative knew them all alike. The voice of 
patriotism from any section awoke the same emotions in 
his breast. The wail of distress from any shore touched 
the same chord in his heart. A devoted, fearless friend of 
his country's flag, he cared not from what direction came 
the breeze that bore it aloft. Brave and frank and honest 
himself, he confided in the honor of other brave men. 
Fearless and aggressive, conscious of his strength, he con- 
cealed no weapons of revenge, but poised his lance in open 
combat at the brightest shield in the arena of brains, as he 
had done in the field of battle. 

His scholarly style, classic diction, and elevated thoughts 
commanded attention whenever he addressed the House. 
He was such a Representative as elevated his constitu- 
ents in the esteem of his compeers. Frank, generous, and 
genial in social relations, he was entitled to and possessed 
the friendship of many of his associates on both sides of 
the House and the respect of all. It is sad that his life was 
severed midway in his career of usefulness and with higher 
honors perhaps awaiting him. 



Life and Services of Philip Sidmv Post. 55 

Such is my reading of the life and character of General 
Post. No circumstance other than his worth aided my 
favorable opinion. We marched in hostile columns during 
the war and contended in opposing parties here. Only the 
judgment is involved in differences of opinion. All the 
other great elements of manhood may meet unrestrained by 
that difference. 

General Post was not a follower in the conflict of arms, 
but stood in the front line against the assaults of the fiercest 
foe that ever marched to battle, and bore to his grave many 
honorable marks of his great gallantry. 

Nor was he a follower in civil life. With no time or taste 
for bitter memories or the company of the ignoble, and no 
heart for the destruction of the hopes of his fellow-men, he 
again advanced to the front in the columns of this marvel- 
ous civilization that seems like the march of the gods. His 
aim in life seemed to be to benefit and not injure. Benevo- 
lence and charity were his characteristics. 

Such characters rise in memory's horizon like the even- 
ing star in the sky, serene and kindly aglow among the 
cold, glittering lights of the later night. Upon the sorrows 
of the bereaved family, so sudden and crushing, I mav not 
intrude. If I could, I would gladly contribute to the allevi- 
ation of their woe, that may be assuaged but not removed. 
Time's cold fingers may soothe the wounds, but they will not 
heal. Deep down in the human heart are chambers sacred 
to the memory of the loved and lost and may not be invaded. 
They speak only by the unbidden and yet not unwelcome 
tear. I may say that though with hearts bowed in sorrow 
they may travel to the boundaries of the nation, the name 
of Post will secure them welcome. No shadow of dishonor 



56 Address of Mr. Stockdale of Mississippi. 

trails after his name. A soldier of renown and gallant 
fame, an able and honest statesman, and a worthy, patriotic, 
and virtuous citizen is written in the memory of those who 
knew him. 

A few days ago I stood on the shores of the great Gulf and 
heard the many-voiced waves, soft and low on the incom- 
ing tide, suggesting, as it seemed, memories of a deceased 
brother who sleeps in the bosom of the great sister State 
by the lakes. I returned to the nation's capital with mes- 
sages of condolence from the great-hearted people of Missis- 
sippi to the sorrowing citizens of Illinois; and may we not 
claim that the loss is mutual? 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 57 



Address of Mr. Boutelle. 

Mr. Speaker: I can hardly hope to add anything to the 
appreciative tributes that have been paid to the memory of 
our distinguished friend and associate, and yet I should be 
unresponsive to my own impulses if I should fail to make 
some expression of my sincere sorrow for his loss and rev- 
erence for his memory. My own acquaintance with Gen- 
eral Post has been confined entirely to the period of his 
public life here. While we served under the same flag and 
in the same cause during the late war, in which he gained 
such merited distinction, we first became acquainted in this 
capital city as members of this body, and although my 
acquaintance with him has always been of an exceedingly 
pleasing character, that of the past few years has assumed 
an intimacy of social friendship which caused his sudden 
death to prove a sharp and severe personal bereavement. 

No word has been said here to-day in eulogy of General 
Post that has failed to elicit the warmest and most heart- 
felt response from my own convictions and feelings. He 
was eminently the true type of an American citizen, a 
gentleman in the highest and noblest sense of the term; 
and often during my acquaintance with him, when 1 have 
reflected upon the modesty which marked his entire de- 
meanor, while all the time I had full knowledge of the 
glorious record he had made in his country's service, I have 
thought how aptly his name was given in his infancy, for 
of all those who have rendered the history of that great 
war period of our nation's life illustrious and splendid I 



58 Address of Mr. BoiUelle of Maine. 

know of no man on either side better entitled to have borne 
the name of the chivalrous and gentle Philip Sidney than 
my friend General Post. 

He was of the very essence of chivalry. His nature was 
composed of those elements of honor, truth, and gentleness 
that go to form the very highest examples of what we 
revere as real manhood. I was particularly struck this 
afternoon by that portion of the eloquent tribute of my 
friend from Alabama, Mr. Clarke, in which he alluded to 
one of General Post's most remarkable characteristics as 
his modesty. I never heard him speak of any episode of 
personal prowess or personal achievement with which he 
had been identified during the war. It was not through 
lack of interest in his personal service or in his relations as 
a soldier, for he was very proud of his comradeship with 
those who bore the burden of battle, proud of the associ- 
ations of those eventful years, proud of the victories that 
were won and of the results that were achieved. 

He liked to talk about them in an impersonal way, and 
was generous in awarding praise to others, and yet in all 
the conversations that I had with him and those in which I 
heard him mingle I never heard him refer to a personal 
achievement or a personal sacrifice. So it happened that 
while I had that general public knowledge which we all 
obtain in regard to men who have figured prominently and 
brilliantly in times of great importance in our history, it 
was not until General Post had passed away, while under 
the same roof with myself, that I became fully conscious 
that during all the years in which we had associated with 
him here, when his face was habitually wreathed with a 
pleasant smile and when he met us all day after day with 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 59 

his characteristically cordial and kindly greeting, he was 
bearing about with him mortal wonnds; that his body had 
been shot and lacerated and torn by grape and canister on 
more than one field of battle, on one of which he had been 
left for dead. 

I have no doubt, Mr. Speaker, that General Post fell at 
last as a victim of injuries received in his military service. 
While the frightful wounds that he had received on various 
occasions were not immediate in their fatal effect, I am con- 
fident that his taking off at so early a period of his maturity 
is directly attributable to the injuries he had sustained in 
the performance of his duty as a citizen and a soldier. 

I need not allude further to his record in the war. It is 
a part of history, and to-day that history has been illumi- 
nated by the testimony of men who served with him under 
the same flag and of men who served against him on many 
bloody fields. That record will stand. It will stand to his 
honor through all time to come. The grand State of Illi- 
nois and the great nation which he so faithfully served in 
war and in peace will see to it that his memory is kept 
green. His comrades will cherish it as the dearest herit- 
age a true soldier and a good man can leave when he passes 
beyond the veil that hides from mortal vision the joys of 
the better life. 

But, Mr. Speaker, to my mind the highest proofs of man- 
hood are not found on the field of battle or in the public 
forum. I believe the true test of the highest manhood is 
to be found in domestic relations, in the sanctity of home, 
in the discharge of those sacred duties and obligations 
which come to us day by day and hour by hour outside of 
the excitements and distractions of public life, but which 



60 Address of Mr. Boutel/e of Maine. 

call up all that is best in our natures in the gentle and 
kindly relations of husband, father, neighbor, fellow-citizen, 
friend. And it is in that respect that I love to remember 
Gen. Philip Sidney Post. For the past two years my 
social relations with him have been of an intimate char- 
acter; and no history of his achievements in the field, no 
record of public effort or public success in legislative life, 
could commend him to me as he has been endeared by 
my knowledge of the simple beauty and affection of his 
private life. 

It has been said, Mr. Speaker, that "all the world loves 
a lover." That is true. And to my mind the most lovable 
of all love is that which endures through all the years of 
conjugal life and parental experience and only brightens as 
the days go by. To my mind there is something especially 
beautiful in that kind of affection which enables the true 
lover, as the years roll away and the silver threads steal in 
among the chestnut tresses, to see beneath them onlv the be- 
loved features and sweet smile of the bright-eyed girl who 
was so proudly led to the altar in the "auld lang syne.'' 

Such was the relation of General Post to his wife and 
his children. It was a delight to mingle with them in their 
family relations. It is a delight to me to remember now 
how beautiful were all those associations of the family in 
which his life was passed. And to those to whom his death 
came as the most severe of all calamities that can befall 
what immeasurable comfort there must be in the remem- 
brance of that steadfast devotion, that unfailing affection, 
which kept them here with him through all the long and 
scorching weeks of last summer's session, caring for his 
comfort, cheering him amid the labors of public life, and 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 61 

giving to him that which I know was dearer to him than 
all else, the constant support of the presence and compan- 
ionship of those he best loved. 

And what a consolation, too, it must be to them that 
when the summons came it was not at the time of his first 
sharp illness four or five weeks previous, when all of his 
household were away at their home in Illinois, but that his 
family were enabled to come here with him, and that when 
he knew he was passing away he could feel upon his fore- 
head the soft hand of affection, and realize that he was sur- 
rounded by the wife and daughter and son who had so loved 
him to the end, and who will cherish his memory as a pre- 
cious inheritance. 

The hero lies still where the dew-dropping willows 
Like fond weeping mourners lean over his grave. 

The lightnings may flash, the loud thunders rattle; 
He heeds not, he hears not; he's free from all pain. 

He sleeps his last sleep; he has fought his last battle; 
No sound can awake him to glory again. 

That, Mr. Speaker, is true of earthly life and earthly 
glory; but, thanks be to Him who gave us the family altar 
and the affections which twine around it, our deceased 
friend lived and died in the full confidence and faith, which 
we share with him, that there is a glory and a happiness 
brighter than any that has blessed us here, and that beyond 
the shores of time he will be reunited in immortal joy with 
those now left sorrowing here. 



62 Address of Mr. Goldzier of Illinois. 



Address of Mr. Goldzier. 

Mr. Speaker: The awful mystery of death has been a 
most fruitful theme for the speculation of man. Around 
the final fact of death are grouped the poetical allegories 
of every religion and creed. Its impressive earnestness, its 
deep, insoluble mystery, inspired the Greek Olympus, as 
well as the Walhalla of Teuton mythology, the happy 
hunting ground of the Indian, and the radiant picture of 
the hereafter conceived by Christian creeds. Even he who 
regards existence with the skepticism of this materialistic 
age is moved in the presence of death, and the agnostic's lips 
pronounce in awe the words of Goethe: 

Who dare express him 
And who profess him. 
Saying, [ believe in him; 
Who, feeling, seeing. 
Deny his being, 
Saying, I believe him not. 

Death and eternity, terms so familiar to our language, 
gain new significance when we gaze into the countenance 
of one who but recently was one of us, filled with the breath 
of life; whose voice we heard, whose grasp we felt, and who 
now lies before us mute and cold, with closed eyes and lips, 
the same and yet another; among us yet, but not of us. 
And as we look upon those lips, closed to us forever, the 
thought occurs that the secret of life and death is a mystery 
no longer to him who is before us; that the spirit which 
has departed could solve for us the question, Is eternitv, 
that of which we know, the unceasing mutation of matter 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 63 

which turns into glowing life in nature; that which we call 
death, which causes to spring from the earth, to which we 
consign the body, grain and flowers and trees and foliage, 
a new life and yet the same, or is there existence beyond 
this? Where is the beginning? Where is the end? How 
much of the feelings and passions which throb the human 
heart accompany us into the beyond? But yet these lips 
are mute! Still as we gaze the form before us in death 
brings back remembrance of him we loved in life, and in the 
deep recesses of recollection his form appears reanimated. 

Death, the dread messenger of destruction, has held a 
rich harvest among those who assembled here in the Fifty- 
third Congress. We have seen a number of our colaborers 
borne hence, called from their work, dying like warriors on 
the field of battle, and many times have we been called in 
solemn conclave to pay the last honor and tribute to the 
departed. 

Last, but not least, among those whom death has called 
was he in whose memory we are assembled here to-day — 
our friend, our colleague and brother, dear to us in life, 
honored and revered in death — Philip Sidney Post, of 
Illinois. 

Mr. Speaker, I remember years ago I sat at the bedside 
of an expiring friend whose life had been a model of up- 
rightness and purity. For days he had been unconscious, 
but as death approached his soul seemed to revive, and, in 
full possession of his senses, he uttered these his last words: 
"I have never in my life acted or spoken contrary to my 
best convictions." 

I think this sentiment may well be applied to him whose 
eulogies are uttered here to-dav. It forms a glowing 



64 Address of Mr, Goldzier of Illinois. 

epitaph upon the monument of one whose singleness of 
purpose, whose honest, upright devotion to duty, whose 
firmness and fearlessness of conviction have marked the 
course of his life. 

It was this devotion to principle which urged Mr. Post 
at the first call of his country to enter the ranks of the 
Army. Firmly imbued with the justice of the Union cause, 
he was among the first to eagerly hasten to the defense of 
the country. Entering the Arm}' a young man, as second 
lieutenant, his courage and ability and, beyond all, his 
religious devotion to duty, soon made him a mark for 
preferment. Steadily he advanced, step by step, bringing 
to every new duty imposed upon him renewed vigor and 
enthusiasm, and thus the close of the war found him with 
the rank of a brigadier-general. Such honor in the field 
where man's highest boon, his life and blood, are at stake 
is not cheaply bought, and many wounds received in battle 
attest the bravery, the courage, and the devotion of our 
departed friend. Seriously, and as was reported mortally, 
wounded, he was left upon the battlefield of Nashville, and 
his friends and associates mourned him as one whose career 
had been closed forever. He recovered, and was spared to 
his family and to his country for man} - a year of useful 
vigor. 

Returning from the field, he devoted himself to the pur- 
suits of peace with the same energy and fidelity which had 
characterized his military career. 

Soon after the close of the war Mr. Post was chosen for 
the important consulate at Vienna, and in that capacitv 
he served his Government with distinction. His charm 
of manner endeared him not alone to all Americans who 



Life and Serines of Philip Sidney Post. 65 

came in contact with him, but he became well known and 
highly prized by the citizens of the Austrian capital, who 
recognized his merits. 

Some years after his return Mr. Post became a member 
of this House for the first time. It is needless to say to 
you who have known him that his career was one of ear- 
nest, painstaking devotion to a duty the weight and impor- 
tance of which seemed at all times to be impressed upon 
him. In the midst of his labor the call came to him to 
which we all must respond sooner or later, and on the 6th 
day of January, 1895, death ended his career. 

A man's life is to me like a book whose pages we peruse; 
his death is that page upon which are inscribed the words 
"The end." 

The book of life of Philip Sidney Post is one the read- 
ing of which elevates and ennobles us. It is such a book 
as one should treasure and guard. It is such a book as I 
would hand down to my children to teach them from its 
pages the lessons of upright, fearless, honest devotion to 
duty, the lessons of honor and courage, such as formed the 
features of his life. 

The lives of such as Mr. Post are beacons in our path, 
and long after his body has been resolved to dust his spirit 
will dwell among us and teach to us the lesson of his life. 
Let those who pass the mound which marks his resting 
place pause and in reverence say, "Honor to him; here 
lies the body of a true, an upright man." 



H Mis 8c 



66 Address of Mr. Broderick of Kansas. 



Address of Mr. Broderick. 

Mr. Speaker: I have had the privilege of association 
with but few men whom I admired as I did General POST, 
and I desire to unite with friends here in offering tribute 
to his memory. 

When a voting man he resided and practiced his pro- 
fession for a short time in the State I in part represent. 
This was before the beginning of the late war, but my per- 
sonal acquaintance with him did not commence until April, 
1891. We met at that time at a Western States congress, 
which was being held at Kansas City, Mo. In August of 
the same year we again met. This time it was at the 
reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic at Detroit, 
Mich. When the reunion closed we, with a little company 
of friends, made a tour of the Great Lakes on a carrying 
steamer. There were only six of us in the party, and we 
were on the lakes two weeks. During this time we became 
well acquainted, and the relations of General Post and 
myself were ever after the most cordial. 

I have but little knowledge of the career of the deceased 
prior to the times mentioned, except as it appears in the 
history of the country. I need not do more than simply 
refer to his public service. The story of his whole life has 
been told here by members from his own State who are 
competent to speak accurately from long and intimate ac- 
quaintance. It is a personal history full of interest and 
replete with success ; one of which every relative and friend 
may be justly proud and one worthy of emulation. Active, 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 67 

energetic, courageous, thoughtful, and determined; a great 
soldier in war, but always generous alike to friend and 
foe; a wise diplomat in time of peace; a statesman of the 
highest order and a citizen of irreproachable character — 
this is a brief mention of an honored and illustrious life. 
From the first he impressed me as a strong character and a 
leader of men. He was quick of perception, wise, just, 
candid, and earnest. These qualities gave him leadership, 
whether in the service of his country commanding an army 
or at his Illinois home in the walks of private life. 

In looking at General Post as I saw him and knew him 
I regarded him as one of the most fearless, independent, 
and valuable members of this body. While he was always 
loyal to his party upon questions of well-settled party pol- 
icy, upon other questions he reserved to himself the right 
to determine what line of duty he should follow. Time 
and again we have seen him stand upon this floor to be 
counted when but few of his party associates agreed with 
him. When he espoused a cause or undertook to champion 
a measure he was earnest and untiring in his zeal. And in 
this connection it is worthy of mention that in debate and 
in all the relations with his fellow-members he never failed 
to be courteous or to recognize the rights and responsibili- 
ties of others. He was unwavering in his fidelity to friends, 
and no member of this body was more highly esteemed. To 
know General Post was to admire him. 

Mr. Speaker, the work of this active life is done. He has 
left to others the example and good results of a well-spent 
life. 

I talked with him but a few davs before his death, and he 
seemed in the best of spirits, and, so far as I could observe, 



68 Address 0/ Air. Broderick of Kansas. 

he had before him the promise of many more years of use- 
fulness. I would not have then believed that he would 
be the next of our number to answer the dread summons. 
On the evening when the sad news was heralded over the 
city that General Post was dead his innumerable friends 
sorrowfully inquired, "Can this be? I saw him but 
yesterday. 

While the great sorrow fell most heavily upon his house- 
hold, its shadow touched and will linger wherever he was 
known. His genial company will be missed here, but the 
loss of his companionship in the beloved home can not be 
assuaged. Grief for departed friends can only be alleviated 
by belief in God and in immortality. 

Thine, Lord, is wisdom. Thine alone! 

Justice and truth before Thee stand ; 
Vet, nearer to Thy sacred throne, 

Mercy withholds Thy lifted hand. 
Each evening shows Thy tender love, 

Each rising morn Thy plenteous grace; 
Thy wakened wrath doth slowly move, 

Thy willing mercy Hies apace ! 
To Thy benign indulgent care. 

Father, this light, this breath we owe; 
And all we have, and all we are, 

From Thee, great source of being, (low. 



Life ami Services of Philip Sidney Post. 69 



MILITARY AND CIVIC TRIBUTES. 

Mr. Henderson of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I ask consent 
to have printed in the Record resolutions adopted by sev- 
eral military and civic bodies commendatory of the char- 
acter of onr departed friend. 

There was no objection. 

The resolutions are as follows: 

Headquarters Seventy-fourth Illinois Association. 

Rockford, III., January y, iS^S- 

Dear. Madam: At a special meeting of the Society of the Seventy-fourth Illi- 
nois this day held at Rockford, 111., the following action was taken regarding the 
death of your husband, General Post, and the undersigned were directed to 
communicate the same to you : 

"The surviving members of the Seventy-fourth Illinois Regiment, so long in 
the brigade commanded by Gen. Philit Sidney Post in the Army of the Cum- 
berland, desire to express to his widow and children the real sympathy which 
they feel for them in this hour of bereavement. 

" The wife and children have lost a husband and father; every member of his 
old brigade has lost a friend. 

" For whatever reputation our regiment acquired in the discharge of its duty 
in march and battle it was indebted, more than to any other cause, to the careful 
instruction and kindly advice of General Post in the early days of its service. 

'• We bear willing testimony not only to his great efficiency as an officer, but to 
his sterling qualities as a man. He was a strict disciplinarian, and yet was loved 
by all. He was brave to a fault, and yet was never rash. He never spared 
himself, but was careful of his men. His was a patriotism that responded to the 
first call of his country, and notwithstanding wounds of the severest character, 
endured even unto the end." 

John H. Sherratt, President. 
Homer P. Holland, Secretary. 

Mr>. Philip Sidney Pi si , 

Galesburg, III. 



■jo Military and Civic Tributes. 

The Washington Board of Trade, 

January 24, 1895. 

My Dear Madam: At a meeting of the Washington Board of Trade, held the 
evening of the 22d instant, the following resolution was unanimously adopted, a 
copy of which I send herewith: 

"iP, wived. That in the death of Hon. Philip Sidney Post, a Representative in 
1 '.mgress from the State of Illinois, and a member of the Committee on the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, the national capital has sustained a severe and unusual loss. 

"General Post was untiring in his earnest devotion to the interests of this Dis- 
trict, and looked to its improvement and development with a patriotic pride which 
induced him to make self-sacrificing efforts in adding to the health and comfort 
of its people and its attractiveness as the capital of a great nation. 

" I luring his residence here General Post won the warm regard of many of 
our citizens by his gentlemanly and courteous demeanor and his cordiality of 
manner. 

"He was the firm supporter and friend of this Board of Trade, and in his 
death many of its members have suffered personal loss. 

•• The Board of Trade therefore tenders its sincere sympathy to his afflicted 

family, and directs that the secretary transmit to them a copy of this resolution." 

Respectfully, yours, 

John B. Wight, Secretary. 

Mrs. Philip S..Post, Galesburg, III. 



A meeting of the Republican Congressional central committee of the old 
Tenth district was held at the Union Hotel at Galesburg to take suitable action 
relative to the death of the late Representative, Gen. P. S. Post. The following 
resolutions were prepared and unanimously adopted : 

" Whereas God in His inscrutable wisdom has seen fit to suddenly call the 
Hon. Philip Sidney Post from his earthly career, we, the members of the 
Republican Congressional committee of the old Tenth district of Illinois, which 
district General Post has so ably represented in the lower House of Congress of 
the United States for the last eight years, deem it but fitting to take cognizance of 
the public calamity that has befallen us. 

" We desire to place on record our appreciation of the faithful and zealous serv- 
ices rendered by General Post to the people of this district and of the State of 
Illinois. 

" His entire life was that of a typical patriotic American citizen, whose deeds 
will be engraven on the pages of history forever. During the late civil war he 
earned the love and admiration of his subordinates and the commendation of his 
superiors for his many acts of gallantry and bravery. In his capacity as a repre- 
sentative of our Government in a foreign land, his valuable researches in the 
methods of government, finance, and commerce have proven of inestimable value. 
As a member of Congress his services to his constituents, irrespective of party 
affiliations, speak more eloquently than words can express. While at all times a 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 71 

true Republican, yet by his unilorm fairness he won the admiration and friendship 
of his political opponents. His private life was that of a pure and upright citi i n. 
and is worthy of emulation: Therefore, 

'•/?<• it resolved, That we tender to his stricken family our heartfeh sympathy 
and condolence in their hour of grief, assuring them that the valuable services 
rendered by the husband and father during his long public career will alway.- be 
gratefully remembered by the people of this district and State. 

" Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be furnished the family of (Jeneral 

Post. 

A. L. Schimpi-'F, Peoria County, Chairman. 

\V. H. Shaw, Fulton County. Secretary. 

Henry Emrich, Knox County. 

A. G. Hammond, Stark County. 



The death of General Post has caused profound sorrow among many members 
of the general assembly. He was highly esteemed. The legislators from General 
POST'S Congressional district held a meeting to-night and adopted the following, 
which was transmitted to Mrs. 1'osT: 

" Springfield, III., January 7, 1895. 
Mrs. Gen. P. S. Post, Galesburg, 111.: 

At a meeting held at the Leland Hotel in Springfield, at which the following 
members of the thirty-ninth general assembly were present. Senators 11. V. 
Fisher, F. C. Harding, ami J. W. Templeton, and Representatives J. W. White, 
N. H. Guthrie, F. Murdock, George Murray, William Payne, G. C. Stickney, 
L. B. De Forest, loseph Mulligan, and W. N. Pilgrim, the following resolution 
was unanimously adopted : 

•'Resolved, That we have heard of the sudden death of Gen. Philip Sidney 
Post with the most profound sorrow. His death takes from those who loved and 
respected him a tender husband, a loving father, a brave soldier, a true patriot, 
a wise statesman, and an honest man, and his death is not onlya loss to his family, 
his friends, his Congressional district, and his State, but it is a loss also to the 
nation. We therefore beg to extend to Mrs. Post and the family our heartfelt 
sympathy in this dark hour of affliction and sorrow, and may God in His merciful 
providence comfort them in their distress " 



At a regular meeting of Gen. George Crook Post, No. 81, Grand Army of the 
Republic, Kirkwood, 111., the following resolutions were adopted: 

•• Whereas, at Washington, D. C, January 6, 1895, God in His providence 
removed from our ranks our distinguished comrade Gen. Philip Sidney Post, 
M. C: 

"Resolved, That Gen. George Crook Post, N0.81, Grand Armyof the Republic, 
having in its membership comrades who served in the regiment with Generr.! 



72 Military and Civic Tributes. 

Post, and saw him promoted from second lieutenant to a general commanding a 
division, and witnessed his heroism and several woundings upon the field of 
battle, and many others of us having enjoyed his acquaintance and friendship, his 
death comes to us as a personal sorrow. We will leave history to record his fame, 
sacrifices, and eminent service in behalf of his country, while we mourn him as a 
friend and genial, warm-hearted comrade. 

"Resolved, That by the death of General Post our country has lost one of its 
purest and ablest legislators. 

"Resolved, That to his bereaved family we extend our sympathies for the loss 
of a tender and devoted husband, a noble and patriotic fatner." 

\V. H. Hart well, 
R. R. Davidson, 
A. Edwards, 

Committee. 
January, 1895. 

The Speaker pro tempore (Mr. MeGann). In accordance 
with the resolutions already adopted, and as a further mark 
of respect to the memory of the deceased, the House now 
stands adjourned until to-morrow morning at 11 o'clock. 



Proceedings in the Senate. 

January 7, 1895. 

A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. 
T. O. Towles, its Chief Clerk, communicated to the Senate 
the intelligence of the death of Philip Sidney Post, late a 
member of the House from the State of Illinois, and trans- 
mitted the resolutions of the House thereon. 

The message also announced that the Speaker of the 
House had appointed Mr. Henderson of Illinois, Mr. Bynum, 
Mr. Boutelle, Mr. Lane, Mr. Marsh, Mr. Childs, Mr. Stall- 
ing-s, Mr. Wheeler of Illinois, and Mr. Lucas as the com- 
mittee on the part of the House to take charge of the 
funeral arrangements. 

The Presiding Officer. The Chair lays before the Sen- 
ate the resolutions of the House of Representatives which 
will be read. 

The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

In the House of Representatives, 

January 7. t8q$. 

Resolved, That the House of Representatives has heard with profound sorrow 
of the death of Hon. Philip Sidney Post, late a representative from the State of 
Illinois. 

Resolved, That a committee of nine members of the House be appointed by 
the Speaker, to act with such Senators as may be selected, to attend the funeral 
of the deceased, and that the Sergeant-at Arms of the House shall take order 
for superintending the funeral of the deceased at his home; and the necessary- 
expenses attending the execution of this order shall be paid out of the contingent 
fund of the House. 

Resolved, That the Clerk of the House be directed to communicate to the Senate 
a copy of these resolutions. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect the House do now adjourn. 

73 



74 Proceedings in the Senate. 

Mr. Palmer. Mr. President, I ask for the immediate con- 
sideration of the resolutions which I send to the desk. 
The Presiding Officer. The resolutions will be read. 
The Secretary read the resolutions, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep sensibility the announcement of 
the death of Hon. Philip Sidney P ST, late a Representative from the State of 
Illinois. 

Resolved, That a committee of five Senators be appointed by the Presiding 
Officer to join the committee appointed on the part of the House of Representa- 
tives to take order for superintending the funeral of the deceased and to accom- 
pany the remains to the place of burial. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these resolutions to the House of 
Representatives. 

The resolutions were considered by unanimous consent, 
and agreed to. 

The Presiding Officer appointed under the second reso- 
lution, as the committee on the part of the Senate, Mr. 
Palmer, Mr. Cullom, Mr. Mitchell of Wisconsin, Mr. Gal- 
linger, and Mr. Allen. 

Mr. Palmer. Mr. President, I offer an additional reso- 
lution, and ask for its adoption. 

The Presiding Officer. The resolution will be read. 

The Secretary read the resolution, as follows: 

Resolved, That, as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased, 
the Senate do now adjourn. 

The Presiding Officer. The question is on agreeing 
to the resolution. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to; and the 
Senate adjourned until Tuesday, January 8, 1895, at 12 
o'clock m. 

February 27, 1895. 
A message from the House of Representatives, by Mr. 
T. O. Towles, its Chief Clerk, announced that the House 



Proceedings in (he Senate. 75 

had passed resolutions commemorative of the life and char- 
acter of Hon. Philip Sidney Post, late a Representative 
from the State of Illinois. 

Mr. CtJLLOM. I ask that the resolutions received from the 
House of Representatives in reference to the death of Gen- 
eral Post of Illinois be laid on the table, and I wish to 
state that my colleague [Mr. Palmer] and I will agree upon 
some future day when the resolutions shall be called up. 

The Vice-President. The resolutions will lie on the 
table. 



MEMORIAL ADDRESSES. 

March i, 1895. 

Mr. Cullom. I ask that the resolutions of the House of 
Representatives in relation to the death of my late colleague 
in that body, General Post, be now laid before the Senate. 

The Presiding Officer. The Chair lays before the Sen- 
ate the resolutions of the House of Representatives, which 
will be read. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of the death of Hon. 
Philip Sidney Post, a Representative from the State of Illinois. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased the business 
of the House be now suspended, that his associates may be able to pay tribute to 
his high character and distinguished services. 

Resolved, That as an additional mark of respect the House shall, at the conclu- 
sion of these ceremonies, adjourn. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the Senate. 

Mr. Cuu.om. Mr. President, I offer the resolutions which 
I send to the desk. 

The Presiding Officer. The resolutions offered by the 
Senator from Illinois will be read. 

The Secretary read as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with deep sorrow the announcement of the 
death of Hon. Philip Sidney Post, late a Representative in Congress from the 
Tenth district of the State of Illinois. 

Resolved, That the business of the Senate be now suspended in order that fitting 
tribute be paid to his memory. 

77 



78 Address of Mr. Cullom of Illim 



ADDRESS OF MR. CULLOM. 

Mr. President : The State of Illinois has furnished to 
the Congress of the United States a large number of its 
most able and eminent members, and upon the roll of dis- 
tinguished statesmen and soldiers of this country the names 
of those furnished by Illinois present a record of great bril- 
liancy. Among all these patriotic names that of Philip 
Sidney Post will ever stand honored and revered by our 
people. That peculiar quality and attribute of the true 
American citizen by which he is enabled when duty calls to 
step promptly from the walks of peaceful, quiet civil life 
into the very midst of the battle and the fray, and there 
take his place as an intelligent, patriotic, faithful soldier of 
his country, was preeminently manifest in the career of Gen. 
Philip Sidney Post. 

In an instant, as it were, the whole tenor and character of 
his life was changed by the call to arms in the proclamation 
of President Lincoln in 1861. The echo of the guns which 
fired upon Sumter had not ceased when that call was issued. 
Over a great portion of the country the news that an attack 
had been made upon the flag was read at the same time that 
the President's call for seventy-five thousand men was made 
public. In a moment, almost, hundreds of thousands of 
men sprang from the silent, quiet, and steady pursuits of 
ordinary life into the very midst of cruel, relentless war. 
The best warriors of the world were they. No military 
education had trained them to the ways of war, but they 
were transformed in a day into a vast army, having but one 
thought and one inspiration. 



Life ami Services of Philip Sidney Post. 79 

Of these, and foremost among them, was Philip Sidney 
Post. He was an ideal volunteer soldier. Logan's descrip- 
tion of the volunteer soldier of the United States was as 
thoroughly fitted to General Post as to almost any man of 
the war period. 

Over the whole great field of the West and Southwest his 
services were required. Badly wounded at Pea Ridge, in 
1862, he still continued, upon recovery, to follow the for- 
tunes of the Army, and at Nashville, in 1864, he was again 
seriously wounded by a grapeshot. His military career 
included in its scope all the States from Missouri and Ten- 
nessee to the Mexican border. 

When the painter or the sculptor shall perpetuate his 
image upon the canvas or in bronze, his gallant form and 
manly bearing will be recognized as the type of the gallant 
American soldier. 

In the city of Alexandria yonder the friends and mourn- 
ers of the Confederate dead of that city have erected a 
statue in bronze representing the Confederate soldier. The 
statue stands on a pedestal upon which is inscribed the 
names of the particular soldiers in whose honor and memory 
it was erected. I do not know the story of the statue, nor 
the idea and special theme of the artist, but I do know 
that nowhere have I ever seen an image so expressive or a 
storv so eloquent as that simple figure tells to those who 
look upon it. It mutely stands in sadness, with musket at 
rest, the vigorous, manly head slightly bowed as in sorrow 
over the death of beloved comrades, and the frank, open 
face tinged with a shade of doubt for the future of his 
cause. More than once have I visited this statue, simply 
to observe what a volume of history it tells and what won- 
drous memories the work of a true artist can evoke. 



80 Address of Mr. Cullom of Illinois. 

When the time comes for the inspired sculptor to depict 
the ideal soldier of the United States in bronze or marble 
and to fix the soldier of the Union in composite figure, I 
believe that he will come near to presenting the form of 
Philip Sidney Post. If he shall succeed in reviving in 
the statue the Union soldier as we knew him in such truth 
as we find in the Confederate soldier's statue at Alexandria, 
he will receive the merited approval of the people. 

But, Mr. President, there was another noticeable feature 
in the character and life of General Post. As he was 
ready to make the great change from citizen to soldier at 
the demand of duty, so with equal readiness did he, in 1866, 
lay aside his uniform and assume the responsibilities of an 
exacting foreign consular service. His constant attention 
and devotion for twelve years to his official duties in a 
foreign land obtained for him the high approbation of his 
Government. He then again entered the domain of private 
life at his beautiful home city in Illinois, and in due time 
he was sought out by the people of the district in which he 
lived to receive the highest honors with which they could 
invest him. He entered Congress, and from the very start 
of his legislative life in Washington he kept and main- 
tained the highest and most creditable position officially 
and personally. 

Mr. President, General Post in politics was a Repub- 
lican, and was sturdy and earnest in defense of his views; 
yet he was always ready to listen to those who differed with 
him and to accord equal sincerity to an opponent. 

General Post became a very prominent member of the 
House of Representatives, and exerted great influence in 
that body in shaping the policy of the Government. 



Life ii/iii St rvices of Philip Sidney Post. Si 

But, Mr. President, I did not intend to refer in detail to 
the man}- events which occurred in the striking career of 
General Post. I prefer rather to speak of him as a man 
and a citizen, and as we knew him iti the daily walks of 
life. He was of us and with us. He was of our time and 
belonged to our age. He participated in our trials and our 
difficulties, and he was with us in our joys and our suc- 
cesses. His geniality and sociability made him friemis 
everywhere and in all circles. He was the life of any 
gathering or society in which he mingled. He was apt 
and pleasant in conversation, and always ready to make 
manifest his friendship and sympathy for the common 
people. 

It was not alone in his public career that he acquired 
his highest laurels. In his social and domestic life, in his 
associations and relations with his neighbors and with 
the friends who lived near his home, were the proofs of 
his adaptation to the demands and requirements of ordi- 
nary life. He was an inspirer of happiness, and carried 
with him an atmosphere of content which made everybody 
happy. From his early life he was always an active, 
energetic man, and in whatever field of duty he was placed 
he was earnest and sincere in his constant efforts to give 
his people the very best service which he could possibly 
render. 

Rut death has taken him away. The seasons come and 
go with unfailing certainty. Day follows day, and the 
night succeeds the morning under the absolute and defi- 
nite laws of the universe. Every thing, every being, every 
material object which has life and growth has its beginning 
and its end. It is first born, it next lives, and at last it 

H Mis 80 6 



. . Address of Mr. Cullom of Illinois. 

dies. Death is the cessation of life. It is a natural and a 
philosophical change. It is universal to all, and therefore 
ought not to be looked upon with dread. If the Christian 
theory be true, as it surely is, the passing of life is not a 
sad and tearful change. It is the fruition of the phenom- 
enon of life. It is the harvest home of humanity, the 
season of rest. It is the glorious horizon of eternal peace, 
beyond whose shining drapery exists the great forever, 
where every soul must claim its everlasting home. 
It has been said that — 

It is not all of life to live, nor all of death to die. 

The two conditions, life and death, complete and make 
perfect the economy of human existence, just as creative 
power designed them. Divinity controls, and ordains that 
death shall be and is the complement of life. Death is the 
state proper to follow life. Before life came, what was 
there? And after death, what is there? 

When a child is born the thought is, "What will he 
be?" And when a man dies the question is, "What has 
he been?" 

Philip Sidney Post was our brother, our friend. What 
has he been? God will measure him by his own just bal- 
ance for time past and for eternity to come. We measure 
him as we knew him. We measure him by his life, which 
is before us, and we cherish him for his humanity and kind- 
ness in life, which we knew and which we loved. 

The crisis which he has met and passed awaits us all. 
Can we meet it as he has done? Can we stand at the open 
door of an endless future and cast all doubts and fears aside? 
Can we ennoble our lives by the nobility with which we lay 
it down at last? 



Life an i Sen ices of Philip Sidney Post. 83 

Xo traveler has returned to tell us of the night beyond. 
Nor ever will a message reach us to say whether the way is 
drear and dark, or if the stars shall shine again. 

Yet, after all, why should a message come? Are we to be 
more favored than the countless millions gone long before? 

It is enough to know that God reigns. 



84 Address of Mr. Teller of Colorado. 



Address of Mr. Teller. 

Mr. President: Among the pleasant personal recollec- 
tions of my public life will be the remembrance of my asso- 
ciation with General Post. I made his acquaintance when 
he first came into the Fiftieth Congress. I had known of 
him as a public man for many years. As a soldier in the 
late war he had taken high rank. At the close of the war, 
crowned with honors that few young men bore, he was given 
service in a foreign land as consul to Austria-Hungary. 
So well did he discharge the duties of the position that in 
a short time he was advanced to that of consul-general, 
and in the latter capacity he served until 1879, when he 
returned to his home at Galesburg, 111. 

While abroad General Post had shown signs of great 
ability in politico-economic affairs. He submitted from 
his post as consul-general some very valuable reports, and, 
living in Europe at the time when great economic ques- 
tions were exciting attention, General Post became a close 
student of such questions. He was living in Europe when 
Germany changed her monetary system. He was living in 
Europe when France closed her mints to silver. He was 
living in Europe when the United States demonetized sil- 
ver. As a student of economic science General Post could 
not but be attracted by such events. He became, as I have 
said, a thorough student of the philosophy of money. 

He returned to the United States a firm believer in the 
doctrine of bimetallism and went into a region of coun- 
try where that doctrine was not popular. The portion 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 85 

of Illinois in which General Post lived is one of the best 
sections in that great State. The people there are culti- 
vated and intelligent. There are there great wealth and 
enterprise and a good deal of pride. In a community 
hostile in sentiment General Post never hesitated to express 
his views on public questions, and notwithstanding the 
fact that when he was nominated for Congress but a very 
small portion of his constituents were in accord with him, 
he was elected to the Fiftieth Congress, thrice reelected, 
and if he had lived would have been a member of the 

Fifty-fourth Congress. 

Mr. President, I do not speak of General Post in a per- 
functory way. I am rarely heard upon occasions of this 
kind. I speak of General Post because I knew his worth. 
I speak of him because I know his death is a loss not only 
to his district but to the American people. I wish we had 
more men like him in public life. I wish we had more 
men of his stamp whom we could hold up to the American 
youth and say, "Here is a man who in every department 
of life in which he has been placed has fulfilled every duty 
imposed upon him in the highest possible degree." 

Not only that, but when in the course of events in his 
State a change was made in the district in which he lived, 
such was his position in the community that the added 
counties to his district sent their delegates instructed for 
his renomination, all but two, as the Senator from Illi- 
nois [Mr. Cullom] reminds me, newly put in the district. 
Whether the people believed with General Post on eco- 
nomic questions or not, they recognized his great ability 
and integrity. 

Mr. President, General Post was a most companionable 
man. I shall never forget the trip I made from this city to 



86 Address of Mr. Teller of Colorado. 

Chicago after our adjournment last session in company with 
him. I had been attracted to him because of his economic 
views, and had become socially very closely connected with 
him; and I recall the pleasant hours as we traveled from 
this city to the great city of the lakes, and the many sub- 
jects which he discussed with the ability that had brought 
to him the support of the intelligent constituency in Illi- 
nois which he represented here. 

General Post was one of the best illustrations of Ameri- 
canism that can be produced. Born in the great State of 
New York, fortunate in his family relations, and enabled to 
receive at Union College a classical education and a legal 
education at Poughkeepsie, in the same State, he early went 
to Galesburg, which at that time, I may say, was the intel- 
lectual center of the State of Illinois. From the very first 
he took high rank in the community in which he lived — 
a rank he maintained to the clay of his death, as illustrated 
by his last nomination and election. 

Mr. President, as the Senator from Illinois [Mr. CullomJ 
has said, General Post was a Republican. He was a parti- 
san in many respects; he believed in the Republican party 
and its doctrines, but he had the courage of his convictions, 
and whenever he found his party not in accord with him 
he had the courage not only in the House of Representa- 
tives to declare his belief, but upon every stump in Illinois 
he gave forth no uncertain sound. No citizen of that great 
State which he represented doubted how he stood upon any 
public question. His honesty, his integrity, was never 
called in question. He made a record as a soldier in his 
youth, as a diplomat in middle life, and as a statesman his 
record has been rarely excelled. 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 87 

Mr. President, not only has the State he represented so 
long and so ably in Congress suffered a great loss, but the 
American people also have suffered a loss. We who believe 
in certain economic principles feel that with his death we, 
and through us the whole people, have suffered a loss. I 
believe few men have ever been in public life who can be 
held up to the American youth as better examples of Amer- 
ican patriotism, of a broad statesmanship, of a thorough lit- 
erary culture, of painstaking duty properly discharged, than 
General Post. The death of such a man is greatly to be 
deplored, and I trust that when we to-night express our 
grief over his death those who listen to us or who will 
read the feeble words we utter will feel that they are not 
mere perfunctory words, but a tribute to a deserving, loyal 
American citizen now no more. 



88 Address of Mr. Palmer of Jlli 



nois. 



ADDRESS OF MR. PALMER. 

Mr. President: It is my duty to bear my testimony to 
the valuable service, in -war and peace, of my friend and 
comrade, Philip Sidney Post. I saw him first in 1861 in 
Missouri. In the earnestness of his patriotism, his troops 
of the Illinois regiment having gone to Missouri and been 
formed into a regiment under the authority of the State of 
Missouri, called the Ninth Missouri, he joined them there. 
We ultimately recovered him and his regiment and made it 
the Fifty-ninth Illinois. 

I regret, Mr. President, that I have not had time to pre- 
pare a tribute to the memory of General POST worthy of 
him. I must depend upon my recollection of the events to 
which I know he was a party and to such facts and circum- 
stances as will serve to illustrate his military and political 
history. 

When I first met General Post he was a voting man. I 
was older than he was. I learned that he was a man of emi- 
nent patriotism, earnestly devoted to the cause that he had 
espoused. I learned that he was devoted to his military 
duties. I learned that he had the highest and an accu- 
rate conception of the mission of the Republic. I had not 
known him before. I met him afterwards and learned to 
appreciate his worth. 

During the war General Post, through the various grades 
that he occupied, always did his duty. Mr. President, there 
is no higher tribute to be paid to any man than that he did 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 89 

his duty. We speak of men who have distinguished them- 
selves in public service, but the man who has done his duty 
is entitled to the highest consideration. 

My knowledge of General Post lasted through several 
years. I remember distinctly on the great day at Chicka- 
mauga I heard he occupied a position on the extreme right 
of our army, and while I felt all those apprehensions that 
may properly be attributed to a. doubting soldier, I felt that 
nothing would be wanting in Post. He was at Crawfish 
Springs, on the right of our army, and I felt perfectly safe 
so far as he was concerned that he would do his whole 
duty. 

After the close of the war I knew General Post. I knew 
of his having been sent abroad in the discharge of impor- 
tant public duties, and I never doubted his ability, his fidel- 
ity, or his patriotism. I knew him during his successive 
elections and reelections as a member of Congress from the 
Galesburg district in our State. While I differed with 
him in regard to public questions, I never doubted his 
integrity or his fidelity to his own convictions. I have 
rarely known in my life a man who was more distinctly 
devoted to public duty. I have rarely met a man who was 
more unselfish than General Post. I have rarely met a man 
who, according to his own conceptions of duty, discharged 
it more faithfully. 

General Post was when I first met him a remarkable 
specimen of manly strength and health and vigor. During 
the war he was wounded, and no doubt his life was short- 
ened by the wounds he then received. Did he regard those 
wounds as being marks of honor received in the discharge 
of the great duties of a soldier? I have never known 



90 Address of Mr. Palmer oj Illinois. 

whether he welcomed them or regarded them as misfor- 
tunes. Mr. President, there are in military life tributes to 
men that men receive from the enemy. There are marks 
of distinction that are written in terms that admit of no 
other description than the fact that they have been received 
as the wounds of General Post were received, and would be 
accepted as tokens of honor. 

That he was a gallant soldier no one can doubt. That he 
was a faithful patriot has never been questioned. That 
he was an upright, honorable man has never been disputed. 
He died in this city within a very short time, and his death 
seems to have been untimely. 

But after all, I have lived long enough to know that the 
man who has discharged his duties while he lives has no 
reason to fear the termination of life. Indeed, although I 
had not conversed with General Post for perhaps a month, 
I knew better than others that he himself regarded his life 
as uncertain. I knew that he felt conscious that his term 
of life would be shortened by conditions that need not now 
be mentioned. 

I have learned and I know that that which we call death 
is a mere discharge from service. We talk about death as 
an enemy. Death is not an enemy to the man who has 
discharged the duties of life. Every means has been 
employed to inspire the human mind with terror of death. 
The painters so depict it. But there is no greater fallacy 
than that. 

General Post had not lived as long as many others, but 
he had faithfully discharged the duties of the life which 
was given to him. He served out his term of enlistment, 
and when that term expired, whether he was conscious of 



Life and Services of Philip Sidney Post. 91 

the approach of what men mistakenly call the great enemy 
or not I do not know; but he had served his term of. enlist- 
ment — he had served it faithfully. 

In regard to the life to which we are passing I ask par- 
don for using a phrase that has been very much abused 
when I sav that you and I, after we have served faithfully 
the term of our enlistment, will receive a pension from 
that Master who judgeth all things well, who has regard 
for our infirmities, who recognizes the earnestness of our 
purposes. That we shall receive it in that life to which 
we are tending can never be doubted. We will pass from 
the life that is to the life which is to come, as General 
POST has done. In the beautiful language of that legend 
which we all love and in which all our hopes are involved, 
in that condition we shall be received with the plaudit, 
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant." 

Philip Sidney Post discharged all the duties of his life, 
and, as far as we can judge, in submission to the great Mas- 
ter of Life who knows all things; and we may well under- 
stand that in that state into which he has passed, that state 
which may be regarded as a blessed state, that state which 
must be regarded as a deliverance from this condition, 
the patriot, the soldier, the kind husband, the good father, 
the faithful citizen, the man who discharged all his social 
duties with fidelity, who was not wanting in anything, 
who was depended upon by those who knew him and loved 
him, as all did who knew him — we may well understand 
that when such a man passes from the life that is to the life 
which is to come he shall be welcome. 

Mr. President, I do not know in what language that wel- 
come may be spoken. When you or I appear before the 



92 Address of Air. Palmer of Illinois. 

Master of Life I do not know in what language he will 
speak to the man who has fulfilled all these duties of life. 
I have faith to believe that the language will be, "Wel- 
come, thou good and faithful servant." Having dis- 
charged the duties of this life, what can be expected in the 
next ? 

The Presiding Officer. The question is on agreeing 
to the resolutions submitted by the Senator from Illinois. 

The resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 



